■RUE 
ESTIMATE 
OF  LIFE 


AMPBELL 
MORGAN 


BV  4501 

.M666  1903 

Morgan, 

S.  Campbell 

1863- 

1945. 

The  true 

estimate  of 

life 

snr\     H  r\XMi 

i-  r\      1  -i  \rcx 

The  True  Estimate  of 
Life  and  How  to  Live 


The  True  Estimate  of 
Life  and  How  to  Live 


By    ! 
G.  Campbell  Morgan 

Author  of  '<  The  Spirit  of  God,"  *'  God's  Methods  with  Man, 
**A  Twentieth  Century  Message,"  etc. 


Chicago  New  York  Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


COPYRIGHT, 

1897,     1898,      1899, 

BY    NORTHFIELD 

ECHOES 


COPYRIGHT,    1903, 

BY     FLEMING     H. 

REVELL    COMPANY 

March 


CHICAGO:  63  WASHINGTON  STREET 
NEW  YORK.  158  FIFTH  AVENUE 
TORONTO:  27  RICHMOND  STREET,  W. 
LONDON:  21  PATERNOSTER  SQUARE 
EDINBURGH:     30    ST.    MARY    STREET 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Paul's  Estimate  of  Life     ...          9 

IL  Health  of  Spirit  ....             39 

IIL  Naaman,  or  the  Second  **But"           .        57 

IV.  Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole  ?               -]-] 

V.  Clay  in  the  Potter's  Hand          .          .109 

VL  The    Divine    Government  of  Human 

Lives         .  .  .  .  .123 

VIL  Redeeming  the  Time  .          .          .           149 

Vin.  Gathering  or  Scattering     .          .          .179 

IX.  Pitching  Toward  Sodom        .          .          209 


Paul's  Estimate  of  Life. 


CHAPTER  I. 
Paul's  Estimate  of  Life. 

In  the  history  of  the  Christian  church  per- 
haps no  man,  upon  whom  the  eyes  of  the 
world  have  been  fixed,  has  so  wondrously 
fulfilled  in  character  and  conduct  the  ideal  of 
Christianity  as  did  the  Apostle  Paul.  Most 
of  us  will  agree  that  he  realized  more  fully 
than  any  man  of  his  own  time  the  purposes  of 
God  as  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ.  His  life  and 
teaching  have  revealed  the  meaning  and  Chris- 
tianity in  a  way  accomplished  by  no  other  life 
or  teaching.  It  is  very  interesting  in  his 
letter  to  the  Philippians,  one  of  his  later 
epistles,  to  find  him  writing  of  himself,  and 
yet  of  himself  principally  in  the  new  life,  which 
he  had  then  been  living  for  about  three  and/ 
thirty  years.  He  writes  with  human  tender-' 
ness,  of  human  sensibilities,  and  human 
thoughts,  while  yet  upon  all  there  rests  the 
light  of  the  divine,  and  through  all  there  is 
manifested  the  power  that  has  taken  posses- 
sion of  him. 

In  this  epistle,  written  to  his  children  in 
II 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

the  faith  at  Philippi,  it  is  very  evident  that  he 
writes  under  the  stress  of  circumstances.  Not 
that  circumstances  are  causing  him  one  mo- 
ment's anxiety,  but  they  are  such  as  to  com- 
pel him  to  face  the  alternative  possibilities 
which  lie  just  ahead  of  him.  It  is  while  in 
this  condition  that  he  writes  this  letter  and 
condenses  into  one  swift  burning  sentence  an 
epitome  of  Christianity  as  he  has  realized  it: 
''To  me  to  live  is  Christ." 

To  this  man,  all  the  marvelous  unfoldings 
of  the  doctrine  and  scheme  of  redemption  can 
be  condensed  and  expressed  in  the  simplest 
of  words.  He  tells  the  whole  story  of  his 
own  experience  of  Christianity  when  he  writes, 
''To  me  to  live  is  Christ"  (Phil.  i.  21).  To 
him  Christianity  is  Christ. 

"Christ!     I  am  Christ!  and  let  the  name  suffice  you, 
Ay,  for  me,  too.  He  greatly  hath  sufficed; 
Christ  is  the  end,  for  Christ  was  the  beginning, 
Christ  the  beginning,  for  the  end  is  Christ." 

This  statement  of  the  apostle's  view  of 
Christianity  gathers  force  when  we  remember 
the  circumstances  under  which  he  wrote  it. 
He  was  a  prisoner  in  charge  of  the  Praetorian 
guard.  He  was  waiting,  most  probably,  for 
the  final  word  of  the  emperor,  which  should 

13 


PauFs  Estimate  of  Life. 

decide  in  which  of  two  ways  his  pathway 
should  He.  If  the  emperor's  command  be 
given,  the  apostle  will  tread  the  road  through 
the  door  of  his  prison,  through  the  city  to  the 
place  of  execution,  and  then,  by  one  swift, 
sudden  stroke,  his  life  will  end.  He  looks 
along  that  road  and  thinks  of  the  possibility  of 
traversing  it.  Then  he  looks  in  the  other 
direction.  Suppose  that  the  emperor  com- 
mand that  he  be  set  at  liberty.  Then  back 
to  Philippi  he  will  speed  to  see  his  children, 
and  on  to  some  new  region  to  tell  the  same 
story  and  live  the  same  life  and  win  more 
trophies  for  Christ.  He  looks  at  these  two 
roads  stretching  before  him,  and  he  says: 

''To  live — is  Christ,  and  to  die — is  gain. 
I  am  in  a  strait  betwixt  two.  I  desire  to  de- 
part, and  yet  for  your  sakes  I  would  tarry  a 
little  longer. ' ' 

Life  and  death  have  lost  their  old  signifi- 
cance to  him,  because  there  is  one  vision  that 
fills  the  horizon  whether  he  look  this  way 
or  that.  Here  it  is  Christ,  and  there  it  is 
gain,  and  gain  is  Christ,  and  Christ  is  gain. 
There  is  no  darkness  but  only  light,  for  every- 
where he  sees  the  Master.  That  is  Chris- 
tianity. 

13 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

Now,  beloved,  I  want  to  take  that  estimate 
of  Christian  hfe  and  meditate  upon  it  for  a 
little  while.  Do  not  expect  me  to  exhaust  it, 
for  in  this  text  lie  all  the  possibilities  and 
potentialities  of  the  Christian  life. 

' 'To  me  to  live  is  Christ. ' '  What  did  the 
apostle  mean?  There  are  seven  things  which 
he  might  have  meant.  By  these  words  he  in- 
tended to  say  that: 

1.  Christ  was  the  author  of  his  life.  It 
was  as  though  he  had  written,  **To  me  to  live 
at  all  is  Christ." 

2.  Christ  was  the  sustainer  of  his  life. 
**To  me  to  continue  to  live  is  Christ." 

3.  Christ  was  the  law  of  his  life.  ''The 
conditions  in  which  I  live  my  life  are  summed 
up  in  Christ." 

4.  Christ  was  the  product  of  his  life. 
"To  me  to  live  is  to  reproduce  Christ." 

5.  Christ  was  the  aim  and  influence  of  his 
life.  "To  me  to  live  is  to  lead  men  to 
Christ." 

6.  Christ  was  the  impulse  of  his  life. 
"To  me  to  live  is  to  be  swept  along  under 
the  compassion  of  the  Christ." 

7.  Christ  was  the  finisher,  the  crown  of 
his  life.     "To  me  to  live  is  at  last  to  be  what 


PauFs  Estimate  of  Life. 

he  is,  and  to  find  the  crowning  of  all  my  man- 
hood in  him." 

Christ  the  end,  as  Christ  was  the  begin- 
ning. Christ  the  beginning,  and  therefore 
Christ  the  end.  Whether  this  man  looked 
back  upon  the  past,  at  the  present,  or  into  the 
future,  within  or  without,  behind,  above,  or 
beyond  to  the  consummation — wherever  he 
turned  his  eyes,  he  saw  Jesus  only. 

The  first  thought  is  that  when  Paul  wrote 
these  words,  **To  me  to  live  is  Christ,"  he 
meant  to  say,  ''Christ  is  the  author  of  my 
life." 

This  man  did  not  count  that  he  had  any 
life  except  the  life  which  was  named  "Christ. " 
He  began  to  reckon  his  life  only  from  the  day 
when  Christ  was  born  within  him  through  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  the  life  of  this 
man,  there  is  one  clean  line,  dividing  it  about 
at  its  center.  Behind  that  line  is  the  old  life, 
the  ''old  man, "  to  which  he  so  often  referred, 
v/hile  on  the  other  side  of  the  line  is  the  new 
life,  the  "new  man."  To  Paul,  the  crossing 
of  that  line  was  something  that  went  to  the 
very  depths  of  his  being.  It  transformed  him 
so  that  in  looking  back  to  the  days  when  he 
became  a  new  man  in  Christ,  he  said  of  the 

15 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

old  days,  ''Old  things  are  passed  away/' 
They  had  all  vanished  out  of  his  sight.  He 
took  no  account  of  anything  that  was  behind 
him,  and  he  said,  "All  things  are  become 
new, ' '  and  in  the  new  things  he  lived.  The 
years  that  he  spent  on  the  earth,  prior  to  the 
moment  when  Jesus  found  him,  he  did  not 
reckon  as  worth  speaking  of  for  a  single 
moment. 

Was  Paul  not  mistaken?  Had  not  very 
much  of  value  been  crowded  into  the  years 
before  his  conversion?  Stop  him  for  a  mo- 
ment and  ask  him : 

''Paul,  what  do  you  mean  by  this?  You 
lived  a  very  remarkable  life  before  you  met 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  You  had  been  brought 
up  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel.  You  had  all  the 
advantages  of  learning  and  religion.  You 
had  never  been  a  profligate.  Your  life  had 
been  straight  and  pure,  clean  through.  You 
were  a  Pharisee  of  the  Pharisees,  a  Hebrew 
of  the  Hebrews.  In  all  outward  seeming, 
and  what  is  infinitely  more,  in  all  inward  sin- 
cerity, you  had  been  a  remarkable  man. ' ' 

"Perfectly  true;  but  the  things  I  counted 
gain,  I  now  count  but  dross." 

"Why?" 

i6 


Paul's  Estimate  of  Life. 

''In  comparison  with  what  I  found,  when 
Christ  found  me.  When  I  turned  my  back 
upon  the  old,  I  did  it  forever,  because  my 
face  was  set  toward  the  new. ' ' 

I  do  not  think  this  man  ever  had  five  min- 
utes' questioning  as  to  whether  he  ought  to  go 
back  into  that  old  life  once  a  week  for  enjoy- 
ment, and  live  the  new  life  all  the  remainder 
of  the  week  as  a  duty.  The  old  life  passed 
away,  and  the  new  life  opened  before  him 
bright  with  joy,  thrilling  with  delights,  expand- 
ing all  the  way. 

The  apostle's  new  life  began  when  there 
shone  a  light  round  about  him  on  the  way  to 
Damascus.  We  learn  so  much  by  contrast. 
Look  at  him  for  a  moment  on  the  way  to 
Damascus.  Remember  that  he  was  straight, 
upright,  moral,  righteous,  sincere  to  the  core 
of  his  being;  and  on  his  way  to  Damascus  he 
carried  in  his  hand  some  very  important  docu- 
ments— letters  from  the  high  priest.  What 
for?  Because  in  Damascus  there  was  a  Httle 
company  of  men  and  women  who  were  daring 
to  slight  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  singing 
hymns  about  this  Jesus,  W^hom  the  friends  of 
Paul  had  crucified.  If  they  should  go  on 
singing  their  hymns  they  would  soon  under- 

17 


The  I'rue  Estimate  of  Life. 

mine  the  national  religion,  and  Paul  was  going 
to  put  an  end  to  it.  So  he  was  riding  with 
the  priest's  letters  in  his  possession,  when  a 
light  from  heaven  fell,  and  a  voice  from 
heaven  spoke.  Paul  fell  to  the  ground,  and 
the  man  upon  the  earth  said  in  answer  to  the 
voice  from  heaven: 

''Who  art  Thou,  Lord.?" 

The  revelation  that  came  to  him  must  have 
been  the  most  startling  in  his  life:  '*I  am 
Jesus  Whom  thou  persecutest. " 

Now  hear  the  next  word  and  never  forget 
it: 

''Lord!" 

What  a  change!  Why,  this  man  has 
joined  the  church  at  Damascus  before  he 
arrives  there!  That  is  all  they  are  doing, 
calling  Jesus  Lord,  and  Paul  has  done  it.  Do 
you  not  see  the  radical  nature  of  this  change.'* 
Do  you  not  see  that  he  has  taken  the  crown 
of  his  life  from  off  his  own  head  and  has  put 
it  on  the  head  of  Jesus.'' 

"Lord,"— and  what  else.?  "What  wilt 
Thou  have  me  to  do?" 

That  is  henceforth  the  keynote  of  his  life. 
The  music  is  true  to  it  through  all  the  future; 
through  missionary  journeyings,  through  perils 
i8 


Paul's  Estimate  of  Life. 

by  land  and  by  sea,  in  prison  and  among  rob- 
bers, when  suffering  persecutions  or  preaching 
the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God,  he  is  always 
true  to  the  keynote  which  he  struck  when  he 
said,  ''Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do?" 
There  his  life  began.  There  the  old  life 
dropped  away,  and  the  new  life  opened  be- 
fore him;  and  looking  back  to  that  beginning 
from  the  jail  in  Rome,  he  writes: 

"To  me  to  live  is  Christ." 

Life  began  there,  and  we  may  judge  how 
real  the  change  was  by  asking  him  a  question, 
which  I  often  think  I  shall  want  to  ask  him 
when  by  God's  grace  I  meet  him  in  the 
glory: 

''Paul,  you  have  not  forgotten  the  ride  to 
Damascus?" 

' '  No,  I  still  remember  the  hour  of  my  ap- 
prehending by  the  Lord." 

"But,  Paul,  what  did  you  do  with  the 
Jiigh  priesf  s  letters  f 

Did  you  ever  think  of  that?  I  shall  want 
to  know  some  day.  They  went  clean  out  of 
his  life  like  everything  else  of  the  old  life. 
Old  things  passed  away. 

That  is  when  Paul  began  to  live.  When 
is  your  birthday,  my  brother?     Let  me  say 

19 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

something  for  the  sake  of  those  who  say,  "I 
cannot  find  my  birthday."  By  a  question 
like  that,  some  trembhng  soul  may  be  unset- 
tled. The  devil  is  only  too  glad  to  take  hold 
of  anything  whereby  he  may  unsettle  any  one. 
If  the  devil  says  to  you,  "You  haven't  had 
any  birthday,"  treat  him  as  I  do  and  say, 
*  *  If  I  never  had  one,  I  will  have  one  now. ' ' 
If  Satan  is  so  very  particular  about  a  definite 
date,  take  this  one  and  say  to  God  right  now: 

"Here  I  give  my  all  to  thee, 

Friends  and  time  and  earthly  store; 
Soul  and  body,  Thine  to  be, 
Wholly  Thine  forever  more." 

The  Master  says,  ''Him  that  cometh  unto 
me,  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out."  We  have 
the  date,  and  any  *'now"  will  do;  so  we  will 
dismiss  the  devil  and  pass  on.  The  point  is 
that  there  is  a  passing  into  the  new  life  and  a 
turning  of  the  back  upon  the  old.  "To  me 
to  live  is  Christ. ' '  Blessed  fact  of  regenera- 
tion, to  which  we  owe  everything  that  comes 
after  it!  All  the  new  possibilities  which  God 
offers  to  us  are  the  result  of  the  fact  that  the 
Master  arrested  us  and  gave  us  His  life,  so 
that  old  things  passed  away  and  all  things 
became  new. 

20 


PauFs  Estimate  of  Life. 

But  Paul  means  infinitely  more.  He 
m.eans  also,  **To  me  to  continue  to  live  is 
Christ."  Three  and  thirty  years,  or  there- 
abouts, he  has  been  following  Jesus,  and  the 
music  of  his  life  has  been  running  on  amid 
earth's  lamentations.  The  harmonies  have 
been  varied,  but  that  has  always  been  the 
chord  of  the  dominant. 

But  what  does  he  mean  when  he  says  that 
to  him  ^*to  continue  to  live  is  Christ"? 

It  is  a  confession  on  the  part  of  this  man 
of  his  own  helplessness.      He  says: 

**Here  I  am  after  three  and  thirty  years, 
by  the  grace  of  God.  I  am  still  living  the 
same  life  that  then  began. ' ' 

''But  how?" 

"Christ.  I  have  not  kept  Him;  He  has 
kept  me.  I  have  not  clung  to  the  cross;  the 
Man  of  the  cross  has  clung  to  me,  which  is 
infinitely  better.  He  has  sustained  my  life 
during  these  three  and  thirty  years. ' ' 

Beloved  in  Christ,  do  we  sufficiently  grasp 
that  great  truth  for  ourselves?  Weak,  trem- 
bling men  and  women,  who  have  started  the 
Christian  life,  are  crying  and  wondering  how 
they  will  hold  out.  If  it  is  left  to  you,  I  will 
not  expect  to  meet  you  in  the  Christian  path- 

21 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

way  twelve  months  hence.  If  it  is  left  to  me, 
I  will  be  a  castaway  very  shortly. 

You  remember  that  wonderful  figure  from 
the  lips  of  Jesus  recorded  in  the  Gospel  by 
John.  There  Christ  says  that  He  is  not  only 
the  author  but  the  sustainer  of  life.  ' '  I  am  the 
vine,  ye  are  the  branches. ' '  Paraphrase  that; 
^  put  it  into  other  words  so  as  to  bring  out  the 

inner  thought.  People  have  an  idea  that 
Jesus  meant  to  say:  ''I  am  the  main  stem  of 
A  the  vine,  and  you  are  the  branches  grafted 

into  Me.  Through  Me,  the  main  stem,  all 
the  forces  of  life  pass  into  you  the  branches." 

That  is  very  beautiful,  but  Jesus  meant 
something  infinitely  stronger. 

What  did  he  say.?  *'I  am" — not  the  main 
stem — *'I  am  the  vme.''  What  is  the  vine? 
Root,  main  stem,  branches,  leaves,  tendrils, 
fruit — everything.  That  is  the  vine.  People 
speak  as  though  the  main  stem  alone  was  the 
vine,  held  up  by  roots  and  expressing  itself  in 
branches.  That  is  true  in  a  sense,  but  I  like 
to  take  this  word  of  Christ's  in  its  simplicity, 
and  therefore  in  its  sublimity.  **I  am  the 
vine" — the  whole  of  it.  What  does  this 
mean?  *'Ye  are  the  branches — part  of  the 
vine — and  the  life  of  the  branch  is  the  life  of 


Paul's  Estimate  of  Life. 

the  vine. "  In  a  sense  the  vine  gives  its  life 
to  the  branch,  but  not  as  a  separate  thing. 
The  branch  is  part  of  the  vine,  and  the  very 
life  that  courses  through  the  branch  and  re- 
produces itself  in  fruit  is  the  life  of  the  vine. 
''To  me  to  live  is  Christ."  His  life  it  is, 
that  sustains  me.  It  is  He  Himself  in  me. 
I  am  His;  He  is  mine.  We  are  one  by  a 
solemn  union,  a  union  infinitely  beyond  any- 
thing that  metaphor  or  figure  can  teach,  one 
with  each  other,  and  by  that  fact  of  our  one- 
ness my  life  has  been  sustained.  *'To  me  to 
live  is  Christ. ' ' 

I  love  this  third  thought:  ''To  me  to  live 
is  Christ.  Christ  is  the  condition  of  my  life; 
Christ  is  the  law  of  my  life. ' ' 

That  is  why  Paul  was  angry  with  the  Gala- 
tians.      He  said  to  them: 

"O  foolish  Galatians,  ye  ran  well;  who 
hath  hindered  you?" 

How  did  he  say  they  had  been  hindered.'' 
They  were  getting  back  under  legalism,  into 
the  place  where  they  continually  said,  "Thou 
shalt  not' '  and  ' ' Thou  shalt' ' ;  and  where  they 
were  bringing  everybody  up  to  the  test  of  for- 
biddings  and  permissions,  and  asking  for  a 
rule  for  everything.      Paul  said: 

23 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

"You  ran  well;  what  hath  hindered  you? 
How  is  it  you  are  so  soon  entangled  with  the 
yoke  of  bondage?" 

How  is  it  with  you,  Paul? 

'*To  me  to  live  is  Christ;  not  a  set  of 
rules,  but  a  life  principle  within  me;  not  the 
conditioning  of  my  days  by  time-tables  and 
maxims  and  rules,  but  the  ever-present  Christ 
stretching  to  the  farthest  territory  of  my  being, 
and  by  His  presence  there  ordering  all  my  life 
within  the  bounds  of  His  own  sacred  will." 

Paul  lived  in  the  new  covenant  of  which 
Jeremiah  spoke,  the  covenant  in  which  the  law 
should  be  written  no  longer  upon  the  table  of 
stone  outside  a  man's  personality,  but  on  his 
heart,  so  that  if  a  man  wanted  to  know  what 
God  would  have  him  do,  he  need  go  to  no 
temple,  to  no  priest,  to  no  altar,  to  no  code 
of  rules.  He  need  but  to  turn  himself  to 
silence  and  quietness  and  say: 

"O  strong  life  of  God  in  Christ  within  me. 
Direct,  control,  suggest  this  day 
All  I  design,  or  do,  or  say, 
That  all  my  powers  with  all  their  might, 
In  thy  sole  glory  may  unite." 

The  man  that  lived  there  had  a  fresh  code 
of  ethics  every  morning,  a  new  list  of  regula- 
24 


Paul's  Estimate  of  Life. 

tions  every  moment;  and  all  these  came  along 
the  impulse  of  the  Christ-life  within  him. 
Christ  is  the  law  of  my  life;  He  conditions  my 
days;  He  is  the  author,  the  sustainer,  and  the 
law. 

Again,  it  is  as  though  this  man  had  said: 
''Christ  is  the  product  of  my  life.  To  me  to 
live  is  Christ. ' ' 

But  if  a  man  says  that,  and  there  is  no 
manifestation  of  it,  who  believes  him?*  Not 
I.  And  I  am  quite  sure  that  this  man  did 
not  want  any  one  to  believe  him  unless  it  was 
perfectly  evident  in  his  life. 

Suppose  that  here  is  a  man  living  a  life 
that  is  selfish  and  malicious  and  proud  and 
critical  and  unkind,  and  he  says: 

''To  me  to  live  is  Christ." 

O  man,  do  not  blaspheme!  Your  life  is 
selfish,  your  life  is  malicious,  your  life  is  critical, 
your  life  is  unkind;  was  Jesus  any  of  these? 

"Oh,  no,"  he  says,  "I  do  not  mean  that. 
I  mean  that  I  have  accepted  His  creed. ' ' 

Never!  No  man  ever  really  accepted  the 
creed  who  did  not  get  the  Christ  first.  The 
creed  grows  out  of  the  living  Christ;  and 
when  that  is  so,  the  creed  is  forever  manifest- 
ing itself  in  conduct. 

25 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

Do  you  not  see,  beloved,  the  necessity  for 
this?  Nature,  so  far  as  we  understand  it, 
always  reproduces  itself  true  to  type.  I  re- 
member the  last  season  in  which  I  put  flowers 
in  my  garden  in  Birmingham,  I  went  down  to 
a  shop  and  bought  some  bulbs,  because  I 
wanted  a  fine  show  of  tulips  in  the  earlier 
days  of  the  year.  I  put  them  all  carefully  in 
my  garden.  I  even  arranged  them  according 
to  a  color  scheme,  and  in  geometrical  pre- 
cision. I  almost  dreamed  of  the  result,  for  I 
love  God's  flowers,  though  I  do  not  under- 
stand them.  The  winter  went;  spring  came, 
and .  the  bulbs  came  up,  but  they  were  cro- 
cuses. Why?  Because  I  had  planted  crocus 
bulbs.  I  thought  I  had  a  bargain,  and  the 
result  was,  that  what  I  had  sowed  that  I 
reaped. 

Now  work  out  that  great  principle  of  life 
and  apply  to  this  question  of  sainthood.  If 
the  life  implanted  in  you  is  the  life  of  Christ, 
that  must  reproduce  itself  true  to  type.  If  a 
man  has  not  quit  singing,  ''I  want  to  be  an 
angel, "  he  is  on  a  sorry-  business,  because  he 
has  not  even  a  promise  of  wings  anywhere  on 
him.  But  if  a  man  is  singing  reverently,  with 
strong  crying  and  tears  and  earnest  desire, 
26 


Paul's  Estimate  of  Life. 

"I  want  to  be  like  Jesus,"  that  is  possible. 
Why?  Because  the  life  he  lives,  if  he  is  bom 
again,  is  the  Christ-life,  and  if  the  life  of 
Christ  be  implanted  within  him,  it  will  in  its 
own  outworking,  reproduce  itself,  and  he  will, 
individually  as  well  as  with  the  Church,  grow 
up  into  Him  in  all  things  which  is  the  head, 
even  Christ. 

Let  us  endeavor  to  understand  this  better 
by  looking  at  two  illustrations  from  Paul's  life. 

We  saw  nim  just  now  on  the  way  to 
Damascus.  I  have  the  profoundest  admira- 
tion for  Saul  of  Tarsus  before  he  was  con- 
verted. I  love  a  man  who  is  sincere  and  out 
and  out  in  anything.  But  do  you  see  what 
Paul's  sincerity  did  for  him  in  those  old  days.'' 
It  made  him  say,  in  effect: 

''I  am  sincere,  and  I  am  determined  that 
the  religion  of  my  God  shall  be  the  religion. 
If  men  will  not  bow  to  it,  then  I  will  hail  them 
to  prison,  and  to  death.  My  sincerity  arouses 
my  indignation,  and  I  am  determined  to  smite 
to  death  the  men  who  will  not  abide  by  that 
which  is  a  divinely  revealed  religion. ' ' 

There  he  is,  a  magnificent  man,  the  best 
that  human  nature  can  ever  do  for  a  man 
apart  from  Jesus  Christ.  Do  not  forget  it. 
27 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

There  has  nothing  finer  been  brought  out  of 
fallen  human  nature  than  Saul  of  Tarsus  be- 
fore Christ  found  him. 

Thirty  years  have  gone,  and  now  we  see 
him  before  Agrippa  and  his  friends,  who  de- 
sire to  amuse  themselves  by  looking  at  this 
strange  man,  and  hearing  what  he  has  to  say. 
Paul  gives  his  testimony,  tells  the  story  of 
how  Jesus  found  him  and  transformed  him. 
Agrippa  looking  at  him,  said  not,  ''Almost 
thou  persuadest, "  but  with  scorn: 

' '  With  a  very  little  would  you  persuade 
me  to  be  a  Christian?" 

What  does  Paul  say?  Is  he  any  less  sin- 
cere and  consecrated  than  he  was  when  he 
rode  to  Damascus?  No.  Is  he  less  enthusi- 
astic? No.  Is  there  any  difference?  Yes. 
a  vast  difference!  How  does  he  show  it? 
Manacles  are  on  his  wrists,  and  chains  upon 
his  ankles,  but  he  looks  into  the  face  of 
Agrippa  and  says: 

*'0  King  Agrippa,  I  wish  that,  not  with  a 

very  little,  but  that  altogether  thou  wast  such 

as  I  am,  except  these  bonds.     I  do  not  want 

\  you  to  wear  my  chains,  Agrippa.      Have  my 

\  Christ,   have  my  light,   have  my  life,   but  I 

S  would  not  put  these  on  even  you,  Agrippa. ' ' 

28 


PauFs  Estimate  of  Life. 

Do  you  see  any  change  in  the  man?  Per- 
fectly sincere  thirty  years  ago,  but  if  you  did 
not  agree  with  him  he  would  put  you  to  death. 
Perfectly  sincere  now,  but  with  an  entirely 
changed  tone: 

'*0  King  Agrippa,  if  you  could  only 
change  places  with  me  without  having  my 
chains;  but  I  would  not  harm  or  pain  you  for 
a  moment!" 

If  a  man  lives  Christ,  he  reproduces  Christ. 
Is  not  that  what  Paul  has  done?  Are  not  his 
words  the  living  echo  of  that  most  wondrous 
prayer  of  all,  ''Father,  forgive  them;  they 
know  not  what  they  do"?  Men  always  in 
some  measure  reproduce  Christ  when  they 
live  His  life.  If  the  Christ-life  is  present  it 
must  come  out  through  the  glory  on  the  face, 
and  the  tenderness  of  the  touch,  and  the  new 
love  for  everybody.  The  very  best  testimony 
that  you  can  ever  give  to  the  power  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  to  live  His  life  over  again,  not  in 
your  own  effort,  but  by  the  propulsion  of  that 
same  life  within  you.  ''For  me  to  live  is  to 
reproduce  Christ." 

Let  me  mention  the  other  points  briefly. 
"To  me  to  live  is  to  influence  men  toward 
Christ.     The  aim  of  my  life  is  Christ. ' ' 
29 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

Do  you  think  that  many  of  those  soldiers 
that  were  fastened  to  Paul  got  away  without 
being  influenced  for  Christ?  I  do  not. 
Every  soul  he  came  into  contact  with  was  an 
opportunity;  and  all  his  life,  so  far  as  active 
service  went,  was  poured  out  in  the  doing  of 
this  one  thing:  the  bringing  of  men  who  had 
never  seen  the  Christ  into  the  place  where 
they  might  see  Him;  and  the  building  up  of 
those  who  had  seen  Him  in  their  most  holy 
faith  from  height  to  height,  and  from  glory 
unto  glory.  The  whole  aim  and  influence  of 
his  life  was  Christ. 

Again,  the  impulse  of  his  life  was  Christ. 

I  use  the  word  ''impulse"  in  reference  to 
the  great  force  behind  it,  which  impelled  him 
to  service.  Take  one  illustration.  You 
know  the  epistle  to  the  Romans,  — that  is,  you 
know  where  it  is.  Well,  read  it  again.  You 
have  never  fathomed  it  yet.  I  am  just  be- 
ginning to  see  light  upon  it,  beauteous  gleams 
of  glory  on  it.  Chapter  five,  justification; 
six,  the  question  of  sin;  seven,  that  question 
still  discussed;  eight,  no  condemnation,  the 
larger,  purer  life;  nine,  what  there?  Well, 
do  not  read  the  ninth  without  reading  the  last 
verses  of  the  eighth.     What  is  the  highest 

30 


Paul's  Estimate  of  Life. 

height  of  experience  in  the  eighth?  "For  I 
am  persuaded  that  neither  death,  nor  Hfe,  nor 
angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor 
things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height, 
nor  depth,  nor  any  other  creature,  shall  be 
able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God, 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord." 

I  always  think  of  the  apostle  here  as  on 
some  mountain  eminence,  looking  at  his  ene- 
mies. They  are  all  around  him — death,  life, 
angels,  principalities,  powers,  things  present; 
and  then  his  imagination  sweeps  him  into  all 
the  infinite  possibilities  of  the  future — things 
to  come,  height,  depth,  or  any  other  creation. 
There  they  all  are,  the  possibilities  of  danger. 
He  says,  ''I  am  persuaded  that  none  of  them 
shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. ' '  There  he  is 
at  the  height  of  vision,  the  height  of  experi- 
ence. 

What  next?  *'I  say  the  truth  in  Christ, 
I  lie  not,  my  conscience  also  bearing  me  wit- 
ness, that  I  have  great  heaviness  and  continual 
sorrow. ' ' 

Why,  the  thirty-eighth  and  thirty-ninth 
verses  of  the  eighth  chapter  do  not  sound  like 
that!     They  are  a  shout  of  triumph,  ''Noth- 

31 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

ing  can  separate  me  from  His  love,  but 
I  have  great  heaviness  and  continual  sor- 
row. ' ' 

What  about?  About  himself?  No;  self 
had  perished  in  the  struggle  of  these  preced- 
ing chapters.  What  about?  ''I  could  wish 
that  myself  were  accursed  from  Christ  for  my 
brethren,  my  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh. ' ' 
What  is  that?  That  is,  ''To  me  to  live  is 
Christ.  The  impulse  of  my  life  is  the  Christ- 
impulse.  The  passion  that  brought  Him 
down  to  redeem  men,  consumes  me,  and 
when  I  have  touched  the  highest  height  of 
His  life  so  that  I  know  that  nothing  can  sepa- 
rate me  from  His  love,  then  I  have  learned 
the  deepest  experience  of  all,  that  of  fellow- 
ship in  His  suffering,  and  I  wish  I  could  be 
accursed. ' '  Jesus  Himself  was  made  a  curse 
for  us,  and  Paul  is  living  the  Christ-life,  so 
that  he  can  say, 

"Oft,  when  the  Word  is  on  me  to  deliver, 
Lifts  the  illusion  and  the  truth  lies  bare, 
Desert  or  throng,  the  city  or  the  river, 

Melts  in  a  lucid  paradise  of  air. 
Only  like  souls  I  see  the  folk  thereunder 

Bound  who  should  conquer,  slaves  who  should  be 
kings, 
Hearing  their  one  hope  with  an  empty  wonder. 
Sadly  contented  in  a  show  of  things; 

32 


Paul's  Estimate  of  Life. 

Then  with  a  rush  the  intolerable  craving 
Shivers  throughout  me  like  a  trumpet  call. 

Oh,  to  save  these,  to  perish  for  their  saving, 
Die  for  their  life,  be  offered  for  them  all!" 

Let  commentators  cease  their  foolish  at- 
tempts to  explain  away  those  verses.  Paul 
has  come  nearer  to  Jesus  Christ  here  than 
ever  before.  This  impulse  of  the  Christ-life 
which  wrought  redemption  for  the  race  at  the 
cost  of  His  own  life  enters  a  human  soul,  and 
floods  it  to  overflowing,  until  he  says: 

*'I  could  wish  that  even  I  were  accursed 
for  my  brethren's  sake.*' 

What  is  the  last  thing.?  Christ  is  the 
crown.  He  is  not  only  the  author;  He  is  the 
finisher.  He  not  only  began;  He  will  end 
the  good  work. 

And  when  it  ends,  what  is  it?  Christ. 
What  is  the  music  of  the  land  to  come.? 
Christ.  What  the  fellowship.?  Christ,  and 
Christ  reproduced  in  the  saints.  What  will 
be  my  chief  joy  when  I  look  again  in  the  face 
of  my  child  who  has  gone  before  me  and  is  to 
wait  for  me  in  the  shining  city.?  It  will  be 
that  she  is  like  Jesus.  Not  only  shall  we  see 
Christ  Himself,  but  Christ  reproduced  in  the 
loved  ones. 


33 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

Imagination  is  sometimes  ahead  of  truth. 
Poetry  guesses  at  more  than  prose  ever  fath- 
oms. Follow  out  the  thought,  and  every- 
where, on  the  throne,  and  amid  the  multitudes, 
what  see  you?  Christ.  That  is  why  this  man 
Paul  stands  and  notwithstanding  Nero's 
threatened  axe,  says: 

**To  die  is  gain." 

*'Do  you  not  see  that  executioner,  Paul?'* 

*'No,  I  do  not  see  him." 

''What  do  you  see?" 

"Christ!     To  die  is  gain. " 

Now  let  me  ask  you  to  finish  this  theme 
for  yourself.  Imagine  that  you  have  in  your 
hand  a  clean  piece  of  paper,  and  write  on  it 
for  yourself — God  help  you! — take  the  pencil 
and  write!  Write  the  story  of  your  life,  hon- 
estly, faithfully,  truly,  in  as  brief  a  sentence 
as  Paul  wrote  the  story  of  his.     Write: 

*'To  me  to  live  is — money." 

Now,  be  honest,  in  God's  name.  If  you 
have  played  the  hypocrite  before,  do  not  do  it 
now.  Write  it  down,  not  for  man's  eyes,  but 
for  God's.  ''To  me  to  live  is  money."  If 
that  is  true,  put  it  down. 

"To  me  to  live  is  pleasure." 

"To  me  to  live  is  fame." 

34 


Paul's  Estimate  of  Life. 

Oh,  fill  them  in  for  yourself! 

Now  you  have  it  written,  your  life's  story. 
You  never  looked  it  squarely  in  the  face  like 
that  before.  There  it  is,  right  in  front  of  you, 
the  self-evident  truth,  the  inner  meaning  of 
all  your  life. 

Now  finish  it.  Write  under  it  what  Paul 
did.  That  is  your  estimate  of  life;  now  add 
Paul's  estimate  of  death: 

"To  me  to  live  is  money;  to  die  is — I  can- 
not write  'gain'  after  that.  To  die  is  loss.  I 
shall  leave  it  all.  Naked  came  I  out  of  my 
mother's  womb;  naked  shall  I  return  there- 
unto." 

"To  me  to  live  is  pleasure;  to  die — oh! 
do  not  talk  to  me  about  death!  It  is  the  last 
thing  I  want  to  think  about.  I  want  my 
pleasure,  my  laughter,  this  hollow  crackling 
of  thorns  under  a  pot;  'tis  all  I  have!  Let 
me  have  it,  but  in  God's  name  do  not  talk 
about  death.  Why,  man,  I  do  not  like  to 
walk  down  the  street  in  the  dark  because  I 
think  of  death.     I  cannot  write  that. ' ' 

"To  me  to  live  is  fame."  Now,  finish  it. 
"And  to  die — no,  I  cannot.  For  if  they  put 
my  name  on  a  marble  monument,  directly  it 
is  erected,   nature,   with  mossy  fingers,  will 

35 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

begin  to  pull  it  down.  I  cannot  write  that. 
To  die  is  to  perish,  to  be  forgotten!  What  is 
fame  when  lam  gone?     I  cannot  write  it." 

No,  beloved^  and^ou  cannot  write  Paul's 
estimate  of  death  after  anything  except  Paul's 
estimate  of  life.  If,  by  God's  great  grace, 
you  can  write,  ''To  me  to  live  is  Christ,"  you 
can  write,  ''To  die  is  gain."  To  die  is  to 
see  Him  more  clearly,  to  be  closer  to  Him, 
to  enter  into  larger  service  for  Him,  to  touch 
the  height  and  the  depth  and  the  length  and 
the  breadth  of  His  life;  "to  die  is  gain." 
You  can  only  write  it  if  you  write  the  first. 

Somebody  else  says:  "Well,  I  have  never 
written  the  first;  can  I  start?" 

Yes. 

"Where  can  I  start?" 

Where  he  started. 

"Where  did  he  start?" 

"Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do?" 
That  is  it.     Will  you  say  that? 

"Yes,  we  will  do  it.      Is  it  easy?' 

No,  it  is  not  easy.  The  cross  is  there, 
crucifixion  is  there,  the  ending  of  self  is  there, 
the  abandoning  of  everything,  of  hope,  and 
wife,  and  child,  and  home,  and  friends,  and 
ambition,  all  is  there.     "Lord — I  have  had 

36 


Paul's  Estimate  of  Life. 

other  lords — Lord,  I  have  been  governed  by 
self,  I  have  been  governed  by  human  loves, 
I  have  been  mastered  by  passions,  I  have  been 
swept  along  by  ambitions;  Lord,  Nazarene, 
depose  these  other  lords  and  be  King. ' ' 

That  is  the  place  to  begin;  and  there  is 
not  a  man  or  woman  who  begins  there  hon- 
estly to  whom  He  will  not  come  with  healing 
on  His  wings,  the  sun  rising;  then  the  old 
things  for  you  shall  pass  away,  and  all  things 
shall  become  new. 


37 


Health  of  Spirit. 


CHAPTER  II. 
Health  of  Spirit. 

Holiness  is  simply  another  word  for  health, 
both  being  derived  from  the  old  Anglo-Saxon 
word  halig,  meaning  whole  and  complete.  It 
would  be  perfectly  correct  to  speak  of  a  holy 
body  and  a  healthy  spirit,  but  we  have  come 
to  speak  of  bodily  holiness  as  health,  and  of 
spiritual  health  as  holiness.  Holiness  is  not 
maturity,  it  is  not  finality;  it  is  rather  a  con- 
dition for  growth  into  maturity  and  unto 
finality. 

In  the  third  chapter  of  Philippians  we  have 
a  brief  autobiographical  sketch  of  the  apostle 
Paul.  He  first  makes  mention  of  the  old  life 
in  which  he  formerly  had  confidence,  and  in 
which  he  still  might  have  confidence,  did  he 
continue  to  measure  things  by  the  standards 
of  the  flesh.  Then  he  goes  on  to  declare  that 
the  things  that  had  been  gain  to  him,  he 
counted  loss  for  Christ.     Notice  he  says: 

*'Howbeit  what  things  were  gain  to  me, 
these  have  I  counted  loss  for  Christ.  Yea, 
verily,  and  I  count  all  things  to  be  loss  for  the 

4^ 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus 
my  Lord. ' ' 

In  the  past,  on  the  way  to  Damascus,  he 
counted  loss,  the  things  in  which  he  had  prided 
himself,  in  that  moment  when  he  surrendered 
himself,  absolutely,  with  all  his  hopes,  and 
aspirations,  and  prejudices — everything — to 
Christ,  and  said,  "Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have 
me  to  do?"  Now,  over  thirty  years  later  he 
writes  that  he  still  counts  all  things  but  loss. 
He  has  not  abandoned  the  position  which  he 
took  up  so  long  ago,  and  it  is  because  he  is  in 
the  same  position  that  he  is  still  in  the  place 
of  blessing  and  power.    Yet  he  is  not  satisfied. 

What  more  is  he  seeking?  For  answer  to 
this  question  let  us  look  at  two  statements 
which  follow.  First,  '  *  Not  that  I  have  already 
obtained  or  am  already  made  perfect:  but  I 
press  on,  if  so  be,  that  I  may  apprehend  that 
for  which  also  I  was  apprehended  by  Christ 
Jesus."  Then,  ''Let  us  therefore,  as  many 
as  be  perfect,  be  thus  minded:  and  if  in  any- 
thing ye  are  otherwise  minded,  even  this  shall 
God  reveal  unto  you."  In  these  two  state- 
ments we  find  the  word  ''perfect  '  so  used  as 
to  suggest  a  contradiction.  In  the  first  he 
declares  he  is  not  perfect.  In  the  second  he 
42 


Health  of  Spirit. 

claims  to  be  perfect.  These  words  ''perfect" 
in  the  original  are  not  identical.  The  first  state- 
ment may  be  read:  ''Not  that  I  have  already 
obtained  or  am  already  perfected. ' '  And  the 
second:  "Let  us  therefore,  as  many  as  be 
perfect. ' '  The  difference  between  being  per- 
fected and  being  perfect  is  the  difference  be- 
tween maturity  of  Christian  life  and  holiness, 
the  difference  between  the  condition  that  is  a 
present  possibility  and  the  condition  which 
can  never  be  attained  until  the  Lord  shall 
come  and  fashion  anew  the  body  of  humilia- 
tion, and  conform  it  to  the  body  of  His  glory. 
I  shall  be  perfected  when  I  see  Him  as  He 
is;  my  whole  nature,  even  this  body  shall 
then  be  transformed  into  perfect  likeness  to 
Himself.  I  never  can  be  perfected  here,  but 
I  can  be  perfect  in  the  sense  of  whole,  healthy, 
holy. 

The  apostle  uses  the  figure  of  a  race  to 
illustrate  the  Christian  life,  and  what  he  says 
I  think  may  be  paraphrased  in  this  way:  "I 
am  not  yet  perfected,  I  am  not  yet  crowned; 
that  for  which  my  Lord  apprehended  me,  was 
not  this  place  of  temptation  and  conflict,  but 
the  brightness  of  the  joyful  day  when  He  will 
present  me — whom  He  found  so  low  down — 

43 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

in  the  very  presence  of  God,  faultless  as  He 
Himself  is  faultless.  That  is  the  goal  of  my 
running,  and  the  crowning  point  to  which  I 
have  not  yet  attained;  but  let  us,  therefore, 
as  many  as  be  perfect — as  many  of  us  as  are 
running  the  race  in  the  strength  and  energy 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  with  every  weight  and  sin 
laid  aside,  and  with  the  very  joy  and  love  of 
God  possessing  us. ' '  We  can  be  perfect  thus. 
It  is  the  difference  between  the  crown  upon  the 
brow,  and  the  passionate  attitude  of  life  which 
has  the  crown  in  view,  and  forgetting  all  that 
is  behind,  presses  toward  it  with  full  and  com- 
plete purpose  of  life. 

That  condition  of  life  is  the  condition  of 
health  of  spirit  before  God,  it  is  the  condition 
of  perfection  in  the  present  moment,  and  it  is 
a  condition  which  ought  to  mark  every  child 
of  God  from  the  moment  of  conversion. 

The  blossom  upon  the  tree  is  perfect, 
beautifully  perfect,  but  it  is  not  perfected. 
It  is  not  consummated;  it  is  not  mature.  It 
needs  the  ministry  of  sun,  and  shower,  and 
atmosphere,  to  ripen  it  into  perfection.  Not 
until  the  fires  of  autumn  have  acted  on  it,  and 
it  stands  in  all  the  glory  of  perfect  fruit,  will 
it  be  perfected. 

44 


Health  of  Spirit. 

Put  a  child  of  six  months  by  the  side  of  a 
man  of  forty;  what  a  difference!  They  are 
both  perfect,  but  the  man  is  perfected  with 
the  perfection  of  maturity,  while  the  child  is 
not. 

In  order  to  the  realization  of  this  perfection 
of  health  it  is  first  necessary  to  remember  that 
holiness  is  the  work  of  God  in  the  life  of  the 
believer.  To  emphasize  this  let  us  take  three 
or  four  passages  of  Scripture. 

Philippians  ii.  12,  13:  *'So,  then,  my  be- 
loved, ....  work  out  your  own  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling;  for  it  is  God  which 
worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  work  for 
His  good  pleasure." 

''It  is  GOD."  I  am  to  work  out  what 
God  works  in,  and  I  can  never  work  out  any 
more  than  God  works  in.  It  is  only  when  we 
see  this  that  we  come  into  the  place  of  health 
and  blessing. 

I.  Thessalonians  V.  23,  24:  ''And  the  God 
of  peace  Himself  sanctify  you  wholly;  and 
may  your  spirit  and  soul  and  body  be  pre- 
served entire,  without  blame  at  the  coming  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Faithful  is  He  that 
calleth  you,  Who  will  also  do  it."  "  W/io 
will  also  do  it.''      It  is  not  we  who  must  pre- 

45 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

serve  blameless  these  three  great  departments 
of  our  being;  it  is  GOD  Who  alone  is  equal 
to  this,  and  all  we  have  to  do  is  to  fall  back 
upon  Him  and  realize  that  it  is  His  w^ork. 

Hebrev^s  xiii.  20,  21 :  **Nov^  the  God  of 
peace,  Who  brought  again  from  the  dead  the 
great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  with  the  blood 
of  the  eternal  covenant,  even  our  Lord  Jesus, 
make  you  perfect  in  every  good  thing  to  do 
His  will,  working  in  us  that  which  is  well 
pleasing  in  His  sight,  through  Jesus  Christ; 
to  Whom  be  the  glory  for  ever  and  ever. 
Amen."  Notice  that  the  power  that  is  to 
sanctify  is  the  power  that  brought  again  the 
Lord  Jesus  from  among  the  dead.  The  one 
impossible  thing  in  all  the  ages  was  the  resur- 
rection of  a  man  from  the  dead,  but  the  whole 
fabric  of  Christianity  rests  upon  the  accom- 
plishment of  that  very  thing,  and  the  stupend- 
ous power  that  brought  Him  from  the  dead  is 
the  power  that  is  to  bring  about  my  sanctifica- 
tion  and  my  perfection.  It  is  dependent  not 
upon  my  poor  feeble  attempts,  but  upon  the 
force  of  God  Who  brought  from  the  dead  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Jude  24,  25:  *'Now  unto  Him  that  is 
able    to   guard   you    from   stumbling  and  to 

46 


Health  of  Spirit. 

set  you  before  the  presence  of  His  glory 
without  blemish  in  exceeding  joy,  to  the  only 
wise  God  our  Saviour,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord  be  glory,  majesty,  dominion,  and 
power  before  all  time,  and  now,  and  forever 
more.  Amen."  The  true  rendering  is, 
''keep  you  from  stumbling,''  not  only  from 
falHng  down.  And  what  else.''  "To  present 
you  not  only  blameless,  but  faultless^  before 
the  presence  of  His  glory."  There  is  the 
perfect  and  the  perfected.  We  are  perfect 
because  He  keeps  us  from  stumbling;  we 
shall  be  perfected  because  He  will  present  us 
faultless  before  the  presence  of  His  glory. 
The  forgiveness  of  my  sins  at  the  cross  de- 
pends upon  Him,  the  power  that  heals  and 
keeps  me  whole  depends  upon  Him,  my 
sanctification  hour  by  hour  depends  upon 
Him,  my  final  presentation  before  the  pres- 
ence of  His  glory  depends  upon  Him.  Just 
in  proportion  as  we  see  that  HE  is  to  do  this, 
in  that  proportion  do  we  come  into  the  place 
of  blessing. 

But  while  it  is  His  zvork,  the  responsibility 
rests  on  me,  that  I  be  in  the  place  in  which 
God  can  do  that  work,  that  I  am  in  the  atti- 
tude to  which  He  will  respond  with  His  power. 

47 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

That  attitude  is  declared  in  II  Corinthians 
vi.  17,  18: 

* 'Wherefore  come  out  from  among  them, 
and  be  ye  separate,  saith  the  Lord,  and  touch 
not  the  unclean  thing;  and  I  will  receive  you, 
and  will  be  a  Father  unto  you,  and  you  shall 
be  my  sons  and  daughters,  saith  the  Lord 
Almighty. ' ' 

That  is  the  attitude  of  separation  and  re- 
nunciation. God  does  not  call  us  to  renounce 
the  great  underlying  principle  of  sin,  for  we 
cannot.  God  cleanses  from  that.  But  He 
does  call  us  to  the  renunciation  of  sin  as  some- 
thing which  we  commit  of  our  own  free  will. 

There  are  three  phases  of  such  sin: 

First,  '* Sin  is  lawlessness."  This  defini- 
tion of  sin  is  perhaps  the  profoundest  of  all, 
including  as  it  does  both  the  underlying  prin- 
ciple, and  the  outwardly  expressed  activity. 
I  am  using  it  now,  however,  only  in  the  sense 
of  wilful  action.  (I  John  iii.  4.)  Every  one 
beheves  that.  It  is  the  simple,  every-day 
definition  of  sin.  In  other  words,  sin  is 
wrongdoing. 

Second,  '*To  him,  therefore,  that  knoweth 
to  do  good,  and  doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin. ' ' 
(James  iv.  17.)     Sin  is  neglecting  to  do  right. 

48 


Health  of  Spirit. 

A  great  many  heartily  agree  with  the  correct- 
ness of  the  first  definition,  but  not  with  the 
second.  A  great  many  are  prepared  to  admit 
that  sin  is  wrongdoing,  but  have  not  learned 
that  the  omission  of  anything,  no  matter  how 
simple,  which  is  due  to  our  Christian  profes- 
sion, is  sin. 

Third,  ''Whatsoever  is  not  of  faith  is  sin. '* 
(Romans  xiv.  23.)  This  definition  goes 
deeper  still.  If  there  comes  into  my  life  as 
a  Christian  a  question  as  to  whether  some 
action  is  right  or  wrong,  and  I  continue  it, 
while  yet  doubtful  concerning  it,  I  am  sinning, 
because  my  action  is  "not  of  faith." 

Scores  of  young  believers,  if  they  could 
only  see  and  believe  that,  would  be  saved 
from  asking  many  questions.     They  ask: 

''Is  it  right  for  me  to  go  here  or  there,  to 
do  this  or  that?" 

Now,  the  fact  that  the  question  arises 
proves  that,  at  least  for  the  present,  it  is 
wrong.  The  moment  you  are  doubtful  about 
a  certain  course  of  action  your  solemn  duty  is 
to  cease  that  action.  In  the  doing  of  that 
doubtful  thing  there  is  actual  sin  against  God. 
There  may  be  something  which  has  been  per- 
fectly legitimate  for  you  thus  far,  but  sud- 

49 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

denly,  in  your  own  communion,  in  the  midst 
of  a  piece  of  service  for  God,  that  thing  ap- 
pears in  such  new  Hght  as  to  cause  you  to 
say: 

''I  wonder  if  that  is  right?" 

The  moment  the  doubt  is  suggested,  the 
only  course  open  is  to  cease  from  doing  that 
thing.  In  process  of  time  you  may  be  able 
to  go  back  to  it,  because  the  doubt  may  be 
removed,  but  you  cannot  afford  to  let  anything 
about  which  there  is  a  suspicion  of  doubt  stand 
between  you  and  your  personal  communion 
with  God.  The  moment  you  begin  to  do  it 
you  are  in  the  region  of  sin. 

We  are  called  upon  to-day,  so  far  as  our 
will  is  concerned,  to  say:  ''Lord,  we  will  put 
away  actual  wrongdoing  out  of  our  lives.  We 
will  come  into  the  place  of  quick  and  ready 
obedience;  to  Thy  will,  when  Thou  shalt 
make  it  known,  anywhere,  in  our  houses,  in 
our  habits,  in  our  inward  life,  there  shall  be 
no  resistance.  We  will  cease  doing  anything 
about  which  we  are  doubtful." 

And  yet  again.  There  is  not  only  to  be 
separation  and  renunciation,  but  there  is  to  be 
the  surrender  of  my  whole  being  to  God.  '*I 
beseech    you,    therefore,    brethren,    by    the 

50 


Health  of  Spirit. 

mercies  of  God,  to  present  your  bodies  a  liv- 
ing sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  to  God,  which 
is  your  reasonable  service."    (Romans  xii.  I.) 

No  one  word  seems  to  convey  all  that  is 
meant  by  surrender.  ^'Consecration  '  is  a 
blessed  word,  but  people  seem  to  have  an 
idea  that  consecration  means  coming  every 
now  and  then  to  give  ourselves  up  to  God 
anew.  We  cannot  reconsecrate  and  reconse- 
crate, though  we  may  repeatedly  call  to  mind 
the  perpetual  fact  of  our  consecration.  The 
word  that  helps  me  more  than  any  other  as 
marking  my  attitude  toward  God  is  the  word 
''abandonment.''  It  is  a  mighty  word  filled 
with  weakness.  It  indicates  my  falling  back 
upon  God. 

'*But  what  about  consequences?" 
I  have  nothing  to  do  with  consequences. 

*'But  God  may  take  me  clean  out  of  the 
place  where  I  am." 

I  have  nothing  to  do  with  that.  Whether 
it  is  in  China,  India,  America,  England,  or 
heaven,  I  do  not  care.  That  is  surrender, 
that  is  abandonment,  if  I  know  anything  about 
it.  ''Lord,  do  with  me  as  Thou  wilt,  in  all 
the  relations  of  my  life,  in  all  the  avenues  of 
my   being,    everywhere    and    at   all    times." 

51 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

'*  Present  yourselves  a  living  sacrifice,  holy, 
acceptable  unto  God,  which  is  your  reasonable 
service. ' ' 

Now  by  God's  grace  renounce  sin,  cut  a 
clear  line  of  separation  between  the  old  life 
and  the  new,  so  far  as  actual  wrong  is  con- 
cerned, so  far  as  the  will  is  concerned.  You 
cannot  give  up  your  wrongdoing  unless  you 
get  the  energy  of  God,  but  you  cannot  get  the 
energy  of  God  until  you  are  willing  to  give  up 
your  wrongdoing.  As  long  as  you  are  cling- 
ing to  sin,  or  neglecting  what  you  ought  to 
do,  or  doing  doubtful  things,  you  will  not  get 
God's  blessing.  Let  the  sin  go,  and  cast 
yourself  upon  God. 

And  then  what? 

Believe.  Abandon  and  believe — I  do  not 
know  which  comes  first.     They  go  together. 

Some  may  say,  ''We  will  abandon,  but  we 
cannot  trust." 

Then  you  do  not  abandon.  There  is  no 
value  in  standing  on  the  edge  of  a  sheet  of  ice 
and  saying  that  it  bears,  while  you  will  not  go 
on  it.  Out  on  it,  man!  Believe  and  abandon 
yourself  to  Him  in  one  great  act.  O  my 
brother,  longing  as  you  are  for  holiness,  will 
you  quit  your  sin,  and  fall  back  upon  God? 
52 


Health  of  Spirit. 

You  cannot  live  the  blessed  life  by  your  own 
effort,  but  you  can  if  HE  lives  it  in  you 
by  His  own  overwhelming  grace.  He  has 
taught  me  that  I  nothing  can,  but  HE  all 
things  can. 

What  a  small  thing  will  keep  men  and 
women  from  this  blessed  life!  In  1895  I 
went  to  Douglas,  on  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  in 
one  of  my  afternoon  meetings  there  came  to 
me  a  young  lady  who  said  that  all  the  joy  had 
gone  out  of  her  life  four  years  ago. 

** Praise  God,"  I  said. 

''What  about?"  said  she. 

"That  you  know  when  it  went;  because  if 
you  know  when  it  went,  you  know  how  it 
went. ' ' 

She  said:   ''I  do  not  think  I  do." 

*'Yes,  you  do;  you  are  very  definite  about 
the  time;  now  go  back  four  years  and  tell  me 
what  happened. ' ' 

She  hung  her  head  for  a  while,  and  I  knew 
that  something  had  happened. 

''What  was  it?" 

She  replied:  "I  disagreed  with  my  oldest 
friend.  We  were  both  Christians,  and  I 
wanted  to  tell  her  that  I  was  wrong,  but  I  did 
not,  and  she  has  gone  away  from  the  country. " 

53 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

''Well,"  I  said,  ''it  is  at  least  evident  that 
you  know  the  reason  of  your  failure. ' ' 

"What  am  I  to  do?"  she  asked. 

"Write  to  her  and  tell  her  that  you  were 
wrong;  that  is  what  the  Master  wanted  you 
to  do  then. ' ' 

"I  cannot  do  that." 

"You  will  never  get  back  to  the  joy  until 
you  do." 

She  came  all  through  that  series  of  meet- 
ings and  fought  against  God.  She  had  all  the 
knowledge  of  the  blessed  life  that  had  come  to 
her  from  her  past  experience,  and  yet  was  in 
darkness  because  she  would  not  go  back  to 
the  point  of  disobedience  and  be  obedient. 

The  next  year  I  went  back  to  Douglas, 
and  my  first  meeting  was  a  meeting  for  work- 
ers. One  of  the  first  persons  I  spoke  to  was 
that  young  woman.  The  first  thing  I  said  to 
her  was: 

"You  have  sent  that  letter?" 

She  said,  "Yes,"  and  every  line  on  her 
face  convinced  me  that  the  joy  had  returned. 
She  said:  "I  wrote  it  last  night!  I  have 
been  fighting  God  for  twelve  months  about 
that  letter,  and  all  last  week  as  I  looked  for- 
ward to  this  mission,  I  have  been  in  hell,  and 

54 


Health  of  Spirit. 

at  last  I  said,  'O  God,  I  cannot  bear  this  any 
longer,  I  will  give  in.'  I  wrote  that  letter 
and  sealed  it  and  carried  it  at  midnight  and 
dropped  it  in  the  letter-box,  and  as  that  letter 
went  into  the  box,  heaven  came  back  into  my 
heart. ' ' 

Of  course  it  did. 

What  is  the  little  thing  that  is  keeping 
heaven  and  God  out  of  your  heart,  and  all 
these  blessings  away  from  your  soul?  It  is 
He  that  brings  the  cleansing  and  the  light, 
but  you  must  be  obedient.  I  beseech  you, 
attend  to  that  upon  which  He  has  put  His 
hand.  Separate.  Renounce  sin.  Step  out 
upon  God,  and  the  healing  and  the  blessing 
will  come. 


55 


NaAMAN OR    THE    SeCOND    "  BuT 


«  RTTn,  »' 


CHAPTER  III. 

NaAMAN OR    THE    SeCOND    "  BuT." 

**And  there  were  many  lepers  in  Israel  in 
the  t'ime  of  Elisha  the  prophet;  and  none  of 
them  was  cleansed,  but  only  Naaman  the 
Syrian."     (Luke  iv.  2-].  R.  V.) 

I  thank  God  that  the  New  Testament 
comes  after  the  Old,  and  that  the  words  of 
Jesus  light  up  for  us  that  old-time  story  of 
Naaman  the  Syrian  with  great  suggestiveness. 
From  the  words  of  the  Master  we  find  that 
Naaman  had  a  second  ''but"  in  his  life.  We 
were  introduced  to  the  first  one  in  the  Old 
Testament,  and  it  was  full  of  sadness.  He 
was  a  great  man  with  his  master;  he  was 
honorable;  he  was  rich — but  he  was  a  leper! 
Now,  Jesus  says  "there  were  many  lepers  in 
Israel,  ....  and  none  of  them  was  cleansed 
BUT  only  Naaman. ' '  Naaman  got  into  bless- 
ing. Naaman  found  a  place  where  the  leprosy 
passed  absolutely  out  of  his  life.  Sweetest 
word  of  all,  it  seems  to  me,  in  that  story — 
''his  flesh  came  again  as  the  flesh  of  a  little 
child:' 

59 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

The  law  of  life  in  the  physical  realm,  as 
revealed  in  the  healing  of  Naaman,  is  the  law 
of  life  in  the  spiritual  realm.  The  Master 
confronts  all  those  smitten  with  leprosy,  the 
leprosy  of  sin;  and  He  says  to  us:  "Except 
ye  turn  and  become  as  little  children  ye  shall 
in  no  wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. " 

I  do  not  propose  to  dwell  at  any  length 
upon  the  story  of  Naaman.  It  is  familiar  to 
us  all.  We  know  all  its  points  and  its  beau- 
ties. My  business  is  to  find  out  how  we  may 
get  the  second  "but"  into  our  lives.  We  are 
all  conscious  that  the  first  "but"  is  there — at 
least,  if  we  are  not,  we  shall  never  find  our 
way  into  the  second.  We  are  all  ready  to 
say: 

"It  is  quite  true  that  we  have  almost  un- 
numbered blessings,  health,  reason,  friends, 
and  countless  mercies;  but  we  are  sinners." 

The  supreme  question  for  every  one  of  us 
is,  how  we  may  obtain  the  experience  of  the 
second  "but,"  not  theoretically,  but  actually, 
definitely,  positively,  that  it  may  also  be  said 
of  each  of  us:  "But  he  was  cleansed." 

There  is  a  very  terrible  revelation  in  the 
word  which  Jesus  utters  about  Israel:  "There 
were  many  lepers  in  Israel." 
60 


Naaman — or  the  Second  "But.*' 

Lepers  in  Israel!  Lepers  among  the  chil- 
dren of  the  covenant!  Men  and  women  living 
right  in  the  region  of  blessing  and  yet  lepers. 
How  absolutely  and  utterly  useless  was  privi- 
lege to  them,  because  they  did  not  make  use 
of  it;  because  they  did  not  take  hold  of  the 
great  blessing  of  God  which  was  theirs  as  a 
nation,  and  in  the  covenant,  and  appropriate 
it  to  themselves!  Yet  this  man  outside  of  the 
covenant;  this  man  who  had  not  lived  in  the 
realm  of  privilege;  this  man  who  had  not  been 
brought  up  in  the  knowledge  of  the  oracles  of 
God;  this  man  who  knew  nothing  in  his  fam- 
ily or  in  his  past  history  of  the  wonderful 
working  power  of  the  Most  High;  this  out- 
sider passed  into  blessing,  while  the  men  who 
were  inside  missed  it! 

The  great  truth  that  is  impressed  upon  our 
minds  from  this  thought  is  that  it  is  not  enough 
that  you  and  I  have  been  among  the  privi- 
leged people;  it  is  not  enough  that  we  know 
the  power  of  God;  it  is  not  enough  that  we 
have  been  brought  up  and  nurtured  in  the 
fear  of  the  Lord;  there  must  be  a  personal 
appropriation  of  all  the  blessing  presented  to 
us  in  Christ,  or  else  we  miss  the  blessing. 
**And  they  shall  come  from  the  east  and  west, 
6i 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

and  from  the  north  and  south,  and  shall  sit 
down  in  the  kingdom  of  God"  while  the  chil- 
dren of  the  kingdom  are  ''cast  forth  without. " 
It  is  not  enough  that  we  know  these  things. 
We  must  do  them. 

I  want  to  say  a  word  first  as  to  the  need 
of  every  heart  that  has  found  the  first  "but" 
in  their  lives.  Then  a  word  as  to  the  message 
of  the  Gospel  to  such  needy  hearts.  And  then  I 
want  to  press  home  a  final  practical  message. 

I  believe  there  is  a  general  conviction  of 
need.  People  generally  agree  that  they  need 
the  pardon  and  the  cleansing  that  Christ  alone 
can  bring;  but  I  want,  if  I  may,  to  analyse 
that  general  sense  of  need,  and  ask  as  through 
my  own  heart's  experience: 

''What  do  I  need.?" 

I  answer  it  by  a  threefold  statement:  (i) 
I  need  that  something  shall  be  done  with  re- 
gard to  yesterday;  (2)  I  need  that  something 
shall  be  done  with  regard  to  to-day;  (3)  I 
need  that  something  shall  be  done  with  regard 
to  to-morrow. 

I  need  that  something  shall  be  done  with 

regard  to  yesterday;    for  yesterday  was  the 

day  of  sin.     The  years  that  have  passed  have 

been  years  of  wrongdoing,  actual  wrongdoing; 

62 


Naaman — or  the  Second  "But." 

years  of  carnal,  self-pleasing  rebellion  against 
God.  What  am  I  going  to  do  with  these 
years.?  Suppose  that  I  now  surrender  myself 
to  Christ,  accepting  His  invitation, — what 
about  the  past?  I  need  that  something  shall 
be  done  with  the  past,  or  else  I  can  have  no 
peace,  no  sense  of  purity,  no  blessing. 

And  then  I  know  that  something  must  be 
done  in  the  present  moment.  Supposing  it 
be  possible  to  deal  with  the  deeds  of  the  past 
I  shall  still  be  the  same  being;  still  in  my  own 
nature  there  will  be  that  which  will  propel  me 
towards  wrong,  and  towards  sin,  and  there- 
fore I  shall  still  be  unacceptable  to  God.  I 
need  forgiveness.  I  need  also  the  conscious- 
ness of  acceptance  with  God. 

And  then,  when  I  have  faced  these  two 
needs,  if  there  be  a  message  in  the  Gospel 
that  shall  meet  my  need  as  to  the  yesterday 
of  my  life,  and  the  to-day  of  my  life,  I  still 
have  another  need.  I  look  out  to  the  future. 
I  see  to-morrow  coming  on,  with  the  same  old 
forms  of  temptation,  the  same  old  suggestions 
to  evil  from  without,  and  I  reverently  say  that 
if  God  forgive  me  yesterday,  and  accept  me 
to-day,  yet  am  I  helpless,  unless  He  make 
some  special  provision  for  me  to-morrow. 

63 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

The  general  sense  of  the  need  is  analysed 
for  my  own  heart  when  I  take  this  threefold 
outlook  upon  my  life — yesterday,  to-day,  to- 
morrow. And  what  need  I?  I  need  first  of 
all  pardon  for  the  past;  I  need  that  in  the 
present  moment  purity  shall  be  given  to  me  in 
order  that  my  nature  shall  be  changed,  and  I 
shall  be  accepted  with  God;  and  for  to-mor- 
row I  need  power  for  all  that  may  come. 
Pardon,  purity,  and  power;  pardon  for  yes- 
terday; purity  for  to-day;  power  for  to-mor- 
row. I  stand  amid  the  years  of  my  life, 
coming  and  going  so  swiftly  that  they  seem 
to  glide  away  before  I  know  it,  and  I  say: 

*'In  the  past  I  have  sinned;  I  want  pardon. 
In  the  present  I  am  impure;  can  I  have 
purity?  And  to-morrow — I  dread  it,  because 
of  my  own  weakness — can  there  be  for  me  a 
power  that  shall  come  into  my  life,  and  ener- 
gise me  in  the  future?" 

Now,  is  not  this  the  Gospel  that  you  have 
heard  through  all  your  lives?  Is  not  every 
need  thus  expressed,  met  in  the  message  that 
Jesus  Christ  sends  to  you  again  to-day? 

What  about  the  past?  He  meets  you  by 
His  cross,  and  He  says  to  you:  ''I  will  blot 
out,   as  a  thick  cloud,   thy  transgressions. ' ' 

64 


Naaman — or  the  Second  "  But." 

Do  you  know  what  it  is  to  blot  out  a  trans- 
gression? Do  you  know  what  it  is  to  have  sin 
put  away  at  the  cross  of  Christ?  He  does  it 
by  His  own  blood-shedding. 

But  what  is  this  blessing  of  the  blotting 
out  of  sin? 

A  boy  ran  in  to  his  mother  one  day  after 
he  had  read  that  promise,  ' '  I  will  blot  out,  as  a 
thick  cloud,  thy  transgressions. ' '    And  he  said : 

*' Mother,  what  does  God  mean  when  He 
says  He  will  blot  out  my  sins?  What  is  He 
going  to  do  with  them?  I  can't  see  how  God 
can  really  blot  them  out  and  put  them  away. 
What  does  it  mean — blot  out?" 

The  mother,  who  is  always  the  best  theo- 
logian for  a  child,  said  to  the  boy:  ''Didn't  I 
see  you  yesterday  writing  on  your  slate?" 

"Yes,"  he  said. 

"Well,  show  it  to  me." 

He  brought  his  slate  to  his  mother,  who 
holding  it  in  front  of  him,  said: 

"Where  is  what  you  wrote?" 

"Oh,"  he  said,  "I  rubbed  it  out." 

"Well,  where  is  it?" 

"Why,  mother,  I  don't  know." 

"But  how  could  you  put  it  away  if  it  was 
really  there?" 

65 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

'*0h,  mother,  I  don't  know.  I  know  it 
was  there,  and  it  is  gone. ' ' 

''Well,"  she  said,  "that  is  what  God 
meant  when  He  said,  'I  will  blot  out  thy 
transgressions.'  " 

My  brother,  are  you  troubled  about  the 
past.''  Are  sins  of  the  past  haunting  you  to- 
day.'* I  do  not  ask  you  to  make  a  list  of  them 
— you  cannot  do  it;  but  I  ask  you  to  remem- 
ber that  the  list  is  made.  The  whole  black 
list  of  sins  is  before  thee,  and  there  comes  thy 
way  to-day  the  Man  of  sorrows  and  of  tears, 
the  Man  of  suffering  and  of  triumph,  and  He 
says:  ''I  will  blot  out  thy  transgressions." 
He  will  put  across  that  list  of  thy  sins  His 
own  pierced  hand,  and  His  own  precious 
blood  shall  cleanse  the  page  of  all  thy  sins. 
It  is  His  promise.  He  is  able  to  promise 
because  He  has  been  into  the  darkness  of  His 
death,  and  out  of  that  darkness  He  has 
brought  authority  by  which  He  blots  out  the 
sin  of  the  past,  and  puts  it  all  away. 

But  I  need  more  than  that:  I  need  purity; 
I  need  to  know  that  I  am  accepted  by  Gcd. 
And  again  He  calls  me  to  His  cross,  and  at 
the  cross  He  tells  me  that  He  will  not  only 
forgive  sins,  but  cleanse  from  all  unrighteous- 
66 


Naaman  —  or  the  Second  "But." 

ness.  He  tells  me  that  He  will  take  my 
nature,  and  purify  it,  and  make  it  like  unto 
His  own;  and  that  in  Him,  and  in  the  power 
of  His  life  communicated  to  me,  I  shall  be 
accepted  of  God. 

But  how  may  I  know  this? 

On  His  oath,  on  His  covenant,  on  His 
blood,  I  am  to  depend,  and  He  says:  ''Him 
that  cometh  to  Me,  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out." 

*'Ah,  but  what  about  to-morrow?  How 
am  I  going  to  manage  to-morrow?" 

The  Master  bends  over  the  trembling  soul 
that  asks  that  question,  and  says:  *'Lo,  I  am 
with  you  always." 

Some  years  ago,  in  Scotland,  a  Scotch 
lord  gave  to  his  old  servant  Donald,  a  little 
farm.      He  called  him  in  one  day  and  said: 

''Donald,  I  am  going  to  give  you  that 
farm,  that  you  may  work  it  for  yourself,  and 
spend  the  rest  of  your  days  there  upon  your 
own  property. ' ' 

Donald,  with  all  the  canniness  that  charac- 
terises a  Scotchman,  looked  up  into  the  face 
of  his  lord,  and  said  to  him: 

"It  is  nae  gude  to  gie  me  the  farm;  I 
have  nae  capital  to  stock  it." 

His  lordship  looked  at  him,  and  said:   ' '  Oh, 

67 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

Donald,  I  think  I  can  manage  to  stock  it 
also. ' ' 

And  Donald  said:  ''Oh,  well,  if  it  \s you 
and  me  for  it,  I  think  we  will  manage." 

Trembling  soul,  if  Christ  Jesus  pardoned 
thee,  if  He  purified  thee,  then  say  to  Him: 

*'Now,  Lord,  I  thank  Thee  for  the  par- 
don; I  magnify  Thee  for  the  purity;  but, 
Master,  I  have  no  capital;  how  am  I  going  to 
live  in  the  future.'"' 

And  He  says:  *'He  that  spared  not  His 
own  Son,  but  delivered  Him  up  for  us  all, 
how  shall  He  not  also  with  Him  freely  give 
us  all  things.'*     Lo,  I  am  with  you." 

''Jesus,  Master,  if  it  be  Thee  and  me  for 
it,  we  can  manage." 

Thus  far  we  have  seen  the  need,  and  the 
provision:  yesterday,  pardon;  to-day,  purity; 
to-morrow,  power.  The  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for- 
ever; pardoning  the  past,  purifying  to-day, 
and  energising  for  every  moment  of  the  path- 
way to  glory. 

Now  we  come  to  the  point  of  actual  deal- 
ing with  God  for  ourselves.  I  cannot  help 
you  here,  except  to  say  what  Naaman's  ser- 
vants said:  "Try  it."     Even  if  you  are  very 


Naaman — or  the  Second  "But." 

weak  and  trembling  and  doubting,  never 
mind.  Try  it.  Venture  on  God.  Take 
some  risk  in  the  matter.  Two  men  in  the 
life  of  Jesus  came  to  Him — and  one  never  can 
read  the  story  of  either  without  feeling  how 
poor  was  the  faith  of  each. 

One  said:  *  'Lord  if  Thou  wilt,  Thou  canst. ' ' 

Don't  you  see,  he  wasn't  perfectly  sure 
that  the  Master  was  willing,  but  he  ventured 
on  Him.  He  came  to  Him  on  a  crutch,  be- 
cause he  could  not  walk  straight,  and  the 
crutch  was  a  little  ''if'—''//  Thou  wilt." 

The  other  had  to  get  another  crutch,  a  crutch 
for  the  other  side,  and  he  said:  "If  Thou 
canst  do  something  for  my  boy,  do  it. ' '  And 
how  did  the  Master  deal  with  this  man.?  Did 
He  say,  "No,  I  cannot  help  you;  your  faith  is 
not  strong  enough;  you  haven't  confidence 
enough"?  Not  He.  If  a  man  got  to  Him, 
He  didn't  care.  It  is  better  for  a  man  to 
come  with,  "Lord,  Thou  canst,"  "Thou 
wilt,"  and  "I  believe";  but  if  you  cannot 
come  that  way,  come  the  other  way.  Come 
with  your  "if."  "Lord,  if  Thou  canst  make 
me  clean,  do  it;  only  I  come  to  Thee." 

Do  you  remember  those  four  leprous  men 
that  sat  in  the  gate  of  the  city  of  Samaria.'* 

69 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

One  of  the  most  sensible  committees  that 
ever  sat  in  the  history  of  the  world,  was  that 
committee  of  starvation.  There  in  the  city 
of  Samaria  famine  stared  them  in  the  face. 
The  host  of  the  besieging  army  had  cut  the 
city  off  from  supplies.  The  committee  of 
four  lepers  held  one  of  the  only  committee 
meetings  I  ever  cared  to  attend;  and  I  like 
to  go  there,  and  watch  these  men  as,  discuss- 
ing the  situation,  they  propose  a  resolution, 
and  carry  it.  What  is  the  resolution?  Said 
they: 

''What  do  we  sitting  here?  If  we  go  into 
the  city  we  shall  die.  That  is  very  evident. 
If  we  sit  still  here  we  shall  die.  If  we  go 
down  to  the  host  of  Syria,  while  they  may 
save  us  alive,  they  may  kill  us.  That  is  the 
outlook:  first,  certain  death  in  the  city; 
secondly,  certain  death  sitting  here;  thirdly, 
half  a  chance  of  life  down  yonder.  We  move 
as  a  resolution  that  we  turn  our  back  upon 
the  certain  death  in  the  city,  certain  death  in 
the  gateway,  and  venture  upon  the  half  chance 
of  life  down  yonder. ' ' 

Wasn't  that  a  sensible  thing  for  a  commit- 
tee to  do?  And  you  know  how  it  worked. 
They  took  the  half  chance  of  life,  and  found 
70 


Naaman  —  or  the  Second  "But." 

that  it  wasn't  only  a  chance  of  Hfe,  but  it  was 
more  abundant  Hfe,  Hfe  for  everybody  except 
the  men  who  didn't  beheve  God  could  do  it. 

My  brother,  I  want  you  to  come  to  Jesus 
Christ  that  way  now,  if  you  feel  that  you  can- 
not come  any  other  way.  It  is  certain  death 
to  go  back  to  the  old  life.  It  is  certain  death 
to  sit  in  the  gateway  sighing  for  virtue,  and 
never  finding  it.  You  are  not  quite  sure 
Jesus  can  do  for  you  what  He  has  done  for 
others,  but  you  think  He  may.  Then  try 
Him  on  the  off  chance!  Venture  on  Him. 
Come  to  Him  now  and  say: 

''Lord,  if  Thou  canst  do  anything  with 
such  as  I  am — Lord,  I  give  myself  to  Thee!" 

How  will  it  work?  Many  a  believer  could 
tell  you: 

"I  came  to  Jesus  as  I  was— 
Weary,  and  worn,  and  sad; 
I  found  in  Him  a  resting  place, 
And  He  has  made  me  glad." 

Accept  that  testimony.  Come,  venture 
on  Him. 

How  was  it  that  Naaman  nearly  missed     ^.  r 
cleansing.'*     Two  things  very  nearly  wrecked     "" 
his  faith.     The  first  was:   ''Behold,  I  thought'' 
— preconceived  notions  of  how  God  was  going 
to  deal  with  him;  and  the  second  was:   "Are 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

not  Abana  and  Pharpar  better  than  the  Jor- 
dan?"— an  attempt  to  dictate  terms  to  God  as 
to  how  he  should  get  healed.  First  of  all,  he 
had  an  idea  as  to  how  God  should  work,  and 
because  God  was  not  going  to  work  that  way, 
he  nearly  missed  his  blessing;  and  then  he 
wanted  to  say  that  he  knew  a  better  way — 
Abana  and  Pharpar  were  better  rivers  than 
the  muddy  Jordan. 

Thousands  of  souls  have  been  wrecked 
upon  one  or  other  of  those  rocks  at  the  en- 
trance of  the  harbour  of  safety.  ''I  thought" 
— what  did  you  think?  Did  you  think  God 
was  coming  to  wave  over  you  some  magician's 
wand,  and  give  you  some  strange  feeling? 
He  never  does.  His  way  is  the  way  of 
obedience.  "To  the  Jordan!  Dip  seven 
times!  To  Christ,  in  absolute  abandonment 
of  self!"  Along  that  line  only  comes  His 
blessing.  And  the  only  way  in  which  some 
men  and  women  will  ever  get  through  into 
salvation  or  sanctification  is  to  sweep  out  of 
their  life,  by  a  determined  effort  of  their  will, 
all  preconceived  notions,  and  to  say: 

'*0h,  God,  get  Thy  way,  in  Thy  way, 
whatever  I  think." 

The  other  danger  is  that  we  want  to  dic- 

72 


Naaman — or  the  Second  "But/* 

tate  terms.  That  is  so  often  done.  I  re- 
member years  ago  conducting  a  mission,  and 
at  the  back  of  the  chapel  sat  a  man.  In  the 
very  first  after-meeting,  as  I  moved  around 
speaking  to  various  persons,  I  came  to  that 
man.  I  found  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  had 
been  dealing  with  him,  but  he  looked  at  me, 
and  said — I  had  been  inviting  people  to  come 
out  into  an  inquiry-room: 

*' Can't  I  be  saved  without  going  in  there ? " 

Now,  when  a  man  begins  to  ask  that  ques- 
tion you  must  deal  with  him  just  in  one  way. 
And  I  said: 

''No;  I  don't  think  you  can." 

''Why, "  he  said,  "is  salvation  in  the  in- 
quiry-room?" 

"No,  it  is  in  God;  but  just  as  long  as 
you  sit  here  and  want  to  dictate  terms  to  God, 
you  are  proving  that  you  have  not  got  to  the 
end  of  self,  and  there  is  no  salvation  for  you. 
That  is  the  trouble  with  you. ' ' 

"Then,"  he  said,  "if  I  cannot  be  saved 
without  going  into  that  room,  I  will  go  to 
hell." 

"My  brother,"  I  answered,  "that  is  not 
God's  choice  for  you.  If  you  have  chosen  it 
for  yourself,  I  cannot  help  it. " 

73 


The  True  Estimate  of  Lifcc 

Every  night  that  man  came  and  sat  there. 
Oh,  how  gracious  God  is!  He  does  not  take 
us  at  our  word.  He  does  not  leave  us  alone 
when  we  have  said  some  rash,  foolhardy  thing. 

I  had  warned  the  workers,  and  said: 

''Don't  talk  to  that  man.  Leave  him 
alone.     Let  God  have  His  way  with  him." 

I  shall  never  forget  the  last  night  of  the 
mission.  Before  I  had  time  to  ask  a  soul  to 
move,  that  man  came  forward  over  the  backs 
of  the  seats  to  the  altar.  I  looked  at  him  and 
said: 

''I  thought  you  were  going  to  hell,  my, 
brother?" 

He  said:  ''Oh,  I  have  been  there  all  the 
week. ' ' 

Praise  God!  it  does  a  man  good  to  get 
there  a  little  while  that  way  sometimes. 

As  long  as  you  are  dictating  terms — 
"Can't  I  be  saved  right  here.-*" — you  are 
likely  to  miss  the  blessing.  You  can  be  saved 
there.  You  can  be  saved  without  a  man 
knowing  of  it  at  the  time.  Somebody  is  bound 
to  know  of  it  soon,  however.  Nobody  ever 
became  a  Christian  without  it  flaming  out 
sooner  or  later.  Nicodemus  and  Joseph  of 
Arimathea  both  tried  to  be  Christians  in  pri- 

74 


Naaman — or  the  Second  "But.** 

vate;  but  by  and  by  there  came  the  day  of 
crucifixion,  and  these  two  men  got  the  body 
of  the  dead  Christ,  and  laid  it  to  its  last  rest. 
You  cannot  be  a  Christian  and  keep  it  under 
a  bushel  long;  the  light  will  either  go  out,  or 
set  the  bushel  on  fire.  You  may  think  you 
can  get  to  Jesus  Christ  quietly;  but  as  long 
as  you  are  trying  to  dictate  terms,  as  long  as 
you  are  saying,  "I  don't  like  this  noisy,  bab- 
bling, rushing,  muddy  stream  of  Jordan;  let 
me  have  the  quiet,  placid,  sweet  waters  of 
Abana, ' '  just  so  long  you  are  not  in  a  condi- 
tion for  blessing.  It  is  when  you  come  to  say: 
*' Anywhere  that  He  points  the  way;  any 
means  that  He  mentions  to  me;  any  cross  He 
puts  in  front  of  me,  I  will  take  to  get  to  Him, 
to  have  His  cleansing" — when  men  come 
there,  then  they  are  in  the  way  of  blessing. 
There  were  many  lepers  in  Israel,  but  none 
of  them  were  cleansed  save  Naaman;  and  he 
was  cleansed  because  he  entered  into  the 
spirit  of  true  relationship  to  God  by  obeying. 
And  there  are  many  who  are  suffering  from 
the  leprosy  of  sin,  but  they,  and  they  only, 
will  have  cleansing  who  in  the  divinely  marked 
way  come  to  Him  Who  alone  can  cleanse, 
and  abandoning  all  preconceived  notions,  and 

75 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

sweeping  aside  every  temptation   to   dictate 

terms,  say: 

"Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea, 

^\x\:'— {best  plea  of  all!)  "that  Thy  blood  was  shed 
for  me. 
And  that  Thou  bidd'st  me  come  to  Thee, 

Oh,  Lamb  of  God"  {through  doubt,  darkness,  diffi- 
culty, m  spite  of  obstacles^ — "I  come." 

God  help  us  all  so  to  come! 


76 


WouLDEST  Thou  be  Made  Whole  ? 


CHAPTER  IV. 
WouLDEST  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

"Would' St  thou  be  made  whole?" 

"Arise,  take  up  thy  bed,  and  walk." 

"Sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing  befall  thee." 

— John  V.  6,  8,  14. 

It  has  been  very  beautifully  said  that  all 
the  parables  of  Jesus  are  miracles  of  wisdom; 
that  all  the  miracles  of  Jesus  are  parables  of 
teaching.  Believing  that  statement  to  be 
true,  I  propose  here  to  consider  this  miracle 
of  healing,  as  a  parable  of  teaching.  In 
order  that  we  may  do  this  intelligently,  suffer 
me  to  remind  you  again  in  a  few  words  of 
the  actual  facts  of  the  story  from  this  fifth 
chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  John. 

Jesus  had  come  up  to  Jerusalem,  and  pass- 
ing through  the  Bethesda  porches,  He  had 
seen  lying  all  around,  a  multitude  of  impotent 
folk,  sick,  and  maimed,  and  halt,  such  as 
were  in  need  of  healing  and  of  deliverance. 
But  the  one  man  who  attracted  His  attention 
principally,  was  the  one  in  all  the  crowd  that 
most   sorely  needed  help.     Christ  is  always 

79 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

pre-eminently  attracted  by  the  most  needy 
cases.  This  man  had  been  in  the  grip  of  his 
infirmity  for  thirty-eight  years.  Now,  that 
is  very  easily  said,  but  how  very  few  of  us 
can  knov/  its  actual  meaning.  Thirty-eight 
years  of  helplessness,  not  strong  enough  now 
to  be  able  to  drag  himself  from  the  place 
where  he  lay  in  the  porches,  into  the  pool, 
longing  ofttimes  to  reach  it,  but  always  too 
late,  some  other  having  stepped  down  before 
him;  and  unable  to  persuade  any  man  to  help 
him  day  after  day,  week  after  week,  month 
after  month;  and  still,  when  Jesus  passes 
through,  he  is  impotent  and  needy;  and  in 
all  likelihood,  feebler  and  weaker  than  he  had 
ever  been. 

Now,  if  you  can  for  a  moment,  I  pray  you 
think  of  the  surprise  of  the  whole  story.  I 
feel  that  there  is  no  more  dramatic  incident  in 
the  New  Testament  than  this.  The  crowds 
are  thronging  Jerusalem  at  the  feast,  the  sick 
folk  are  lying  all  about  in  the  porches  at  Beth- 
esda;  and  undoubtedly  a  great  multitude  of 
people  are  passing,  as  Jesus  passed,  through 
those  porches.  As  the  Master  comes,  His 
eye  rests  upon  this  man,  who  lies  there  in  all 
his  need,  and  in  all  his  weakness,  and  looking 
80 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

down  at  him,  He  says  to  him,  ''Wouldest  thou 
be  made  whole?"  And  I  can  imagine  with 
what  astonishment  the  man  looked  up  into  the 
face  of  the  Stranger;  for  I  pray  you  remem- 
ber the  man  did  not  know  Him,  did  not  know 
that  it  was  the  Prophet,  mighty  in  deed  and 
word.  Who  was  so  strangely  beginning  to  stir 
the  whole  country;  and  his  very  first  word 
marks  his  astonishment — ''Sir" — as  though 
he  had  said,  What  do  you  mean  by  asking  me 
a  question  like  that? — "Sir,  I  have  no  man, 
when  the  water  is  troubled,  to  put  me  into  the 
pool;  but  while  I  am  coming,  another  steppeth 
down  before  me. ' '  Then  Jesus  says,  ' '  Arise, 
take  up  thy  bed,  and  walk, ' '  and  I  think  I 
see  a  crowd  gathering  around.  Human  na- 
ture is  just  the  same  in  every  age.  They 
begin  to  watch  and  wonder,  and  I  think,  if  I 
had  been  in  the  crowd,  I  should  have  pro- 
tested against  what  Jesus  had  said.  I  will 
tell  you  why  presently.  While  the  crowd 
gathers,  the  Christ  quietly  looks  at  the  man, 
that  man  in  the  grip  of  an  infirmity  for  thirty- 
eight  years,  so  weak  that  he  could  not  struggle 
his  own  way  to  the  pool  when  the  water  was 
troubled,  and  he  stands  up,  bends  down  again, 
picks  up  the  bed  upon  which  he  had  been 
81 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

lying,  rolling  it  up  in  all  probability,  flings  it 
on  his  shoulder,  and  walks,  a  whole  man,  out 
of  the  porches  into  which  he  had  been  carried. 
And  where  is  Jesus?  He  is  gone.  He  con- 
veyed Himself  away;  the  crowd  was  coming 
after  Him,  and  He  departed. 

Now  the  man  starts  his  walk  home,  and 
some  of  the  men  who  were  far  more  eager 
about  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  than  the 
healing  of  an  impotent  man,  stop  him,  and 
they  say  to  him,  "What  right  have  you  carry- 
ing your  bed  on  the  Sabbath?"  And  I  like 
the  man's  answer,  ''The  Man  that  healed  me 
told  me  to  do  it."  And  they  said,  "Who 
is  it  that  told  you  to  do  it?"  You  notice 
their  question.  They  did  not  say,  "Who  is 
it  that  healed  you?"  They  were  so  anxious 
about  the  Sabbath.  Oh,  these  men  that  strain 
at  gnats  and  swallow  camels!  "Who  told  you 
to  carry  your  bed?"  And  he  knew  not  that 
it  was  Jesus,  and  he  told  them  he  did  not 
know,  so  there  was  an  end  of  the  strife. 

Now,  in  all  probability — if  I  can  follow  the 
story  up,  and  I  think  I  may  do  it  correctly — 
he  carried  his  bed  home,  and  he  put  it  down, 
and  coming  out  of  his  house  again,  he  made 
his  way,  eager  and  anxious  to  do  what,  per- 
82 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

chance,  he  had  not  been  able  to  do  for  long 
years,  to  mingle  with  the  worshippers  in  the 
temple,  back  to  the  temple  courts,  back  to  the 
songs  of  Zion,  back  to  worship.  And  as  he 
is  there  among  the  worshippers,  moving 
around,  perchance  greeting  old  friends,  to 
their  utter  astonishment,  suddenly  he  stands 
again  face  to  face  with  the  Man  Who  healed 
him.  Jesus  is  in  front  of  him.  And  Jesus 
looks  into  his  face  as  he  stands  erect,  and  He 
says  to  him,  "Behold,  thou  art  made  whole; 
sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing  befall  thee." 
And  again  the  Master  passes  away;  and  so 
far  as  we  know,  did  not  speak  to  the  man 
again.  But  in  those  three  things  that  Jesus 
said  to  him,  I  have  a  radiant  revelation  of 
His  perpetual  method  of  dealing  with  man. 
First  He  arrested  his  attention,  called  his 
mind  into  play,  and  appealed  to  his  will, 
''Wouldest  thou  be  made  whole?"  And  then 
He  called  him  to  act,  to  put  into  action  the 
new  consciousness  and  passion  that  had  taken 
possession  of  his  soul,  "Arise,  take  up  thy 
bed,  and  walk."  And  then,  after  he  was 
healed,  He  conditioned  all  his  life  for  him  in 
a  very  simple  law.  He  pronounced  him 
whole,    "Thou  art  made  whole";    and  then 

83 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

He  laid  a  commandment  on  him,  ''Sin  no 
more";  and  then  He  Ht  for  him  a  solemn  and 
suggestive  lamp  of  warning,  ''lest  a  worse 
thing  befall  thee. ' ' 

Now,  shall  we  take  these  three  stages  in 
the  Master's  method  and  attempt  to  look  at 
them  a  little  more  closely. 

Take  the  first,  "Wouldest  thou  be  made 
whole.'"'  The  question  is  so  simple  that  it 
seems  as  though  we  might  dismiss  it,  and  say 
nothing  about  it;  and  yet  I  am  sure  that  that 
would  be  a  great  mistake,  because  the  ques- 
tion that  appears  so  simple  is  indeed  sublime. 

There  are  at  least  four  facts  within  the 
compass  of  that  question  that  we  are  bound  to 
examine,  if  we  would  understand  Christ's 
method  with  men.  First,  the  Lord  Jesus 
recognizes  the  royalty  of  human  will.  Do 
you  want  to  be  made  whole?  And  I  say  it 
very  reverently  at  once,  unless  he  does 
Christ  can  do  nothing  for  him.  But  there  is 
more  than  that  in  the  question.  There  is,  not 
apparent  in  the  question,  but  quite  evident 
from  what  followed  it,  a  revelation  to  the  man 
of  his  degradation.  You  want  to  be  made 
whole?  And  immediately  the  man's  question 
reveals  the  fact  that  he  never  expected  to  be 

84 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

made  whole,  that  he  had  lost  heart,  that  he 
had  lost  hope.  He  said,  ''Sir,  I  have  no 
man,  when  the  water  is  troubled,  to  put  me 
into  the  pool;  but  while  I  am  coming,  another 
steppeth  down  before  me";  which,  being 
translated  into  other  words,  means  this,  It  is 
no  use  asking  me  such  a  question,  I  have  not 
any  chance  of  being  made  whole.  He  had 
lost  hope,  and  Christ's  question  revealed  the 
fact.  And  yet  is  there  not  in  the  question  of 
Christ,  because  Christ  asks  it,  a  renewal  of 
the  very  hope  he  had  lost?  The  fact  that  the 
man  answered  him  at  all,  shows  that  suddenly 
there  was  springing  up  in  the  man's  heart  the 
hope  that  was  dead.  Why  did  he  answer 
Christ?  Nay,  nay,  ask  another  question;  ask 
the  question  that  in  all  probability  the  man 
asked,  as  he  lay  there,  ''What  made  this 
Man  say  that  to  me?  Whole!  did  He  say? 
Why,  there  is  the  song  of  birds  in  the  very 
word,  and  the  breath  of  summer  seems  round 
about  me  once  again.  Whole?  What  does 
He  mean?  Is  He  going  to  do  something  for 
me?  Is  this  the  Man  I  have  been  waiting 
for,  that  will  help  me  when  no  one  else  can?" 
And  I  think  that  while  there  is  evidently  a 
revelation  of  the  degradation  of  the  man,  in 

85 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

that  he  had  lost  hope,  there  is  also  a  revela- 
tion of  the  fact  that  the  question  renewed  his 
hope. 

And  yet  once  again,  not  only  the  recogni- 
tion of  royalty  of  will,  and  the  revelation  of 
degradation,  and  the  renewal  of  hope,  but 
surely  a  requirement,  a  claim  upon  the  man 
suggested,  in  order  to  the  end  that  is  desired; 
the  arrest  of  the  man,  that  the  man  may  be 
ready  for  something  else.  If  Christ  stands 
outside  that  man's  will,  and  asks  that  it  may 
consent;  and  if  Christ,  standing  outside  the 
man,  reveals  the  man's  degradation;  and  if, 
in  the  very  question.  He  renews  his  hope;  is 
there  not  a  hint,  an  inference,  a  suggestion, 
that  if  he  is  going  to  have  any  wholeness  that 
Christ  can  give  him  he  must  be  ready  to  do 
what  Christ  tells  him.?  So  that,  it  seems  to 
me,  we  have  at  least  four  things  revealed  in 
this  question.  When  Christ  comes  to  deal 
with  a  man  that  is  impotent,  a  man  that  is  in 
the  grip  of  some  mastering  disease  that  is 
sapping  his  life  and  spoiling  his  days,  first 
He  recognizes  the  royalty  of  human  will; 
secondly,  reveals  the  fact  of  degradation,  that 
hope  is  lost;  thirdly,  renews  hope  by  the  very 
fact  of  His  coming,  and  His  question;  and 
86 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

lastly,  requires  submission  to  whatever  He 
shall  say,  if  the  benefit  that  He  is  ready  and 
willing  to  confer  is  to  be  obtained. 

Now,  for  the  moment,  let  us  pass  from  the 
story,  and  attempt  to  apply  this  revelation  of 
its  meaning  to  ourselves.  If  this  study  has 
any  value  in  it,  it  has  that  value  as  we  are 
conscious  of  our  sin,  conscious  of  our  short- 
comings, conscious  that  we  are  not  what  we 
would  be,  conscious  of  the  passions  that  mas- 
ter us,  of  the  evil  things  that  hold  us  in  their 
grip.  If  Christ  is  indeed  to  heal  spiritually; 
if  men  are  to  lose  the  chains  that  bind  them;  if 
indeed  *'the  pulses  of  desire"  are  to  feel  the 
touch  of  ''His  coolness  and  balm";  if  the 
poison  that  has  burned  in  our  veins  like  a 
veritable  fever  is  to  be  quenched;  there  are 
certain  things  that  we  have  to  look  solemnly 
in  the  face:  things  that  are  suggested  by  this 
very  first  question. 

Jesus  confronts  you,  my  brother,  my  sis- 
ter, personally,  individually,  in  loneliness;  and 
the  question  He  is  now  asking  you  is  this:  Do 
you  want  to  be  made  whole.? 

Now,  let  me  say  at  once  to  you,  if  you  do 
not,  then  I  have  no  message  for  you  further. 
I  think  we  may  just  as  well  take  these  things 

87 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

step  by  step,  and  be  quite  serious  about  them, 
and  businesslike  about  them.  If  there  is  a 
man  who  has  no  desire  to  be  made  whole,  no 
desire  after  pureness,  no  desire  after  whole- 
ness, no  desire  after  a  higher  mode  of  life,  no 
desire  after  the  things  that  are  beautiful,  the 
things  that  are  of  good  report,  then  I  have  no 
further  message  for  that  man.  You  drop  out 
of  my  argument,  you  drop  out  of  my  message; 
I  have  nothing  more  to  say  to  you.  I  have  no 
warrant  to  deliver  any  evangel  of  power  and 
of  blessing  to  the  man  that  does  not  want  to 
be  made  whole. 

But  now,  hear  me.  Is  there  such  a  man? 
There  may  be,  but  I  very  much  doubt  it.  I 
wonder  if  that  statement  sounds  at  all  aston- 
ishing. I  will  repeat  it,  as  revealing  a  grow- 
ing conviction  in  my  heart  and  life,  as  I  work 
for  God,  that  you  will  have  a  very  great  diffi- 
culty in  finding  me  the  man  that  does  not  want 
to  be  made  whole.  Oh,  but  you  say,  look  at 
the  men  who  are  sinning,  and  sinning  with  a 
high  hand  and  outstretched  arm.  Look  at 
the  men  that  have  all  kinds  of  chances  of 
amendment.  Look  at  the  men  who  have 
heard  the  Gospel  message  from  childhood  up, 
and  yet  are  sinning  on.  Do  you  mean  to  tell 
88 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

us,  some  one  is  saying,  that  you  think  those 
men  really  want  to  be  made  whole?  In  a  vast 
majority  of  cases  I  believe  they  do. 

I  remember  one  early  morning  as  far  back 
as  the  year  1887.  I  had  been  out  all  through 
the  night,  sitting  by  the  bedside  of  a  dying 
man  in  the  town  of  Hull  in  the  north  of  Eng- 
land, and  as  I  was  taking  my  way  home, 
having  seen  him  pass  away,  about  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  turning  suddenly  around  a 
corner,  I  came  face  to  face  with  a  young  fel- 
low, the  son  of  godly  people,  a  child  of  tender 
care,  and  constant  prayer,  and  yet  who,  hav- 
ing fallen,  was  just  going  all  the  pace  in 
wickedness;  and  meeting  him  suddenly  like 
that,  just  turning  the  corner  so  that  there  was 
no  escape,  he  and  I  stood  face  to  face.  He 
was  hurrying  home,  through  the  gray  morn- 
ing, after  a  night  of  carousal.  I  took  his 
hand  in  mine,  and  I  looked  into  his  face,  and 
I  said, 

"Charley,  when  are  you  going  to  stop  this 
kind  of  thing.?" 

I  wish  I  could  tell  what  that  man  said,  and 
how  he  said  it.  I  shall  never  forget  it,  I  think, 
to  my  dying  day.  He  looked  into  my  face,  a 
young  man  just  about  my  own  age  at  the  time, 

89 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

and  yet  prematurely  aged,  with  sunken  cheek 
and  blood-shot  eye,  and  that  grey  ashen  hue 
that  tells  of  debauchery;  and  holding  out  a 
hand  that  he  could  not  hold  still,  that  trembled 
as  he  held  it,  he  said,  ''What  do  you  mean  by 
asking  me  when  I  am  going  to  stop?"  He 
said,  "I  would  lose  that  hand  here  and  now, 
if  I  knew  how  to  stop. "  I  do  not  think  that 
was  a  lonely  case.  I  believe  that  if  you  could 
only  get  hold  of  half  these  men  that  are  going 
wrong,  if  you  could  only  get  hold  of  them, 
and  press  them  up  into  some  corner  in  the 
early  morning,  catching  them  unawares,  when 
they  are  not  prepared  to  debate  the  thing  with 
you  or  laugh  at  your  entreaty,  they  would 
speak  out  a  great  truth,  and  it  would  be.  We 
want  to  be  pure,  we  hate  impurity. 

Oh,  I  know  you  will  suggest  a  hundred 
whys.  Oh,  yes,.  I  know  all  the  whys,  but 
face  the  fact  first.  I  very  much  doubt  if  you 
can  find  me  a  young  fellow  who  is  playing  the 
fool  with  himself,  and  sinning,  sinning,  sin- 
ning, but  that  if  you  could  get  back  of  the 
exterior,  if  you  could  only  know  what  is  going 
on  in  his  own  heart,  you  would  find  a  man 
who  wants  to  be  made  whole.  Profoundly 
do  I  beHeve  it. 

90 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

Now,  Christ  asks  first,  that  if  that  is  true, 
if  I  am  right  about  you,  that  you  will  say  so 
to  Him  now.     That  is  His  first  question. 

But  now,  take  the  next  step.  This  man 
did  want  to  be  made  whole.  The  question 
seems  to  be  superfluous  in  one  sense.  I  can 
imagine  that  the  man  might  have  said  to 
Jesus,  What  makes  you  ask  me  that.?  Do 
you  suppose  I  love  lying  here?  Do  you  sup- 
pose I  am  fond  of  this  infirmity?  Do  you 
suppose  that  I  really  am  delighted  with  this 
spoilation  of  my  life?  The  man  did  not  say 
all  that.  What  then  did  he  say?  He  said 
the  next  thing.  He  said  in  effect,  Sir,  it  is 
no  use  to  ask  me,  I  cannot  be  made  whole. 
I  tried,  but  I  never  got  down  to  the  troubled 
water.  I  have  been  waiting  for  a  man  to 
help  me ;  that  man  has  never  come.  It  is  no 
good,  do  not  ask  me  about  being  whole.  Of 
course  I  want  to  be  whole,  but  I  never  shall. 

Now  here  we  are  touching  the  reason  why 
so  many  of  these  men  are  continuing  in  sin. 
They  have  lost  heart,  they  have  lost  hope, 
they  do  not  believe  they  can  mend.  When, 
every  now  and  then,  one  of  them  comes  to 
talk  to  me,  or  some  Christian  worker,  and  the 
whole  truth  is  talked  out,  in  straightness,  that 

91 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

is  the  story  we  have  to  hear  again  and  again. 
A  man  says  to  us,  Oh,  I  would  give  anything 
if  I  could  go  right,  but  I  cannot;  it  is  no 
good.  I  have  tried  and  tried  and  tried,  and 
failed  and  failed  and  failed.  I  have  been  to 
meetings,  and  I  have  been  to  ministers,  and 
I  have  been  to  all  sorts  of  people,  and  I  have 
never  yet  been  able  to  stand  up  and  be  strong, 
since  I  became  the  slave  of  sin.  A  man 
comes  to  me  and  says,  I  am  in  the  grip  of  a 
passion  for  drink.  Oh,  the  number  of  such 
men  that  one  has  to  deal  with.  And  he  says, 
I  want  to  go  right,  God  knows  I  want  to  go 
right,  but  I  cannot.  Said  a  man  to  me  some 
years  ago,  who  was  a  member  of  my  congre- 
gation, a  man  of  splendid  parts,  a  man  who, 
every  now  and  then,  just  bxoke  out  and 
simply  went  mad  with  drink;  and  I  went  to 
see  him  as  he  was  getting  back  out  of  one  of 
these  terrible  drinking  bouts,  and  sitting  in 
his  house  with  him,  he  looked  at  me  with  a 
sort  of  disdain  in  his  face,  the  disdain  which 
is  the  mark,  not  of  unkindness,  but  of  inward 
agony;  and  he  said,  ''Mr.  Morgan,  what  is 
the  good  of  your  talking  to  me.?  You  don't 
know  anything  about  this  passion  for  drink, 
you  don't  know  what  it  means."  Said  he, 
92 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

''When  the  thirst  is  on  me,  if  you  put  a  glass 
of  wine  on  that  table,  and  standing  on  the 
other  side  of  it,  you  told  me  that  if  I  touched 
it  you  would  shoot  me,  and  I  knew  that  hell 
lay  the  other  side  of  the  bullet,  I  would  drink 
that  wine. ' ' 

Now,  don't  you  people  that  know  nothing 
about  it  think  that  that  is  fanaticism.  There 
is  many  a  man  in  that  condition.  The  grip 
of  sin  in  the  form  of  a  passion  for  drink  is 
awful.  When  it  gets  hold  of  a  man  it  be- 
comes more  than  a  spiritual  sin,  it  becomes 
more  than  a  mental  aberration,  it  becomes  a 
physical  disease.  Many  a  man  is  in  that  con- 
dition, and  he  will  tell  you  he  has  tried  and 
tried,  and  failed  and  failed.  Doesn't  that 
man  want  to  be  right?  Of  course  he  does. 
What,  then,  is  the  matter  with  him?  He  has 
lost  hope;  he  has  lost  heart.  He  is  saying 
exactly  what  this  man  said.  There  is  nobody 
can  help  me;  don't  talk  to  me  about  being 
whole. 

But  what  next?  And  oh,  my  brother,  I 
am  talking  to  you.  God  knows  just  what 
you  are  doing,  nursing  your  agony,  hiding 
your  sin,  hidden  in  the  world  from  everybody 
except  the  Master.     Now,  may  I  not  say  to 

93 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

you  this,  that  just  as  the  question  of  Jesus 
suggested  to  this  man  another  possibiHty,  very 
faint,  very  unhkely,  and  yet,  perchance,  some- 
thing in  it;  and  just  as  the  question  of  Jesus 
brought  to  this  man  a  new  hope — may  I  not 
say  to  you  now  that  the  question  of  Christ 
ought  to,  and  I  beheve  is,  bringing  a  new 
hope  into  your  Hfe?  You  know  I  want  to 
take  you  just  where  you  are,  my  brother,  and 
help  you.  I  want  to  take  you  right  down 
there  in  the  midst  of  your  weakness,  I  want 
to  take  you  with  that  underlying  passion  for 
wholeness,  and  that  overlying  conception  that 
you  can't  have  it,  and  I  want  to  say  to  you, 
isn't  the  very  fact  that  you  are  willing  to  listen, 
and  that  God's  message  is  being  delivered  to 
you,  and  that  once  again  the  question  of  the 
Christ  is  coming  to  you  personally,  Do  you  want 
to  be  made  whole? — is  not  there  something 
in  it  at  least  that  ought  to  suggest  to  you  that 
there  is  half  a  chance,  if  no  more,  that  Christ 
may  be  able  to  do  something  for  you?  Oh,  I 
will  take  you  on  your  half  chance,  if  you  will 
only  come,  because  my  Master  did.  I  like 
to  see  the  men  that  came  to  Him,  not  quite 
sure  that  they  would  get  anything,  and  they 
always  got  what  they  wanted.     There  was  a 

94 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

man  one  day  came  to  Him,  and  said  to  Him, 
If  Thou  canst  do  anything  for  my  boy.  It 
was  a  poor  faith,  it  was  a  faith  that  came  on 
a  crutch — *' If  Thou  canst."  And  did  Jesus 
say  to  him.  Well,  if  that  is  all  your  confi- 
dence, you  had  better  go  away;  if  you  ques- 
tion My  power,  I  have  nothing  for  you.''  No, 
no,  Christ  never  does  that  kind  of  thmg.  If 
a  man  cannot  come  without  his  **if"  Christ 
will  bless  him,  notwithstanding  his  "if,"  if  he 
will  come.  Christ  flung  the  *'if"  back  at 
him,  and  He  said,  '*If  thou  canst  beheve,  all 
things  are  possible, ' '  and  he  got  his  blessing. 
And  there  was  another  man  came  to 
Christ,  a  good  deal  meaner  than  that  one. 
This  man  that  came  to  Christ  did  not  say,  ''If 
Thou  canst."  We  have  little  respect  for 
that  man.  But  the  other  man  said,  ' '  If  Thou 
wilt."  He  did  not  question  the  power  so 
much  as  the  willingness.  And  was  Jesus 
offended,  and  did  He  send  him  away  because 
he  came  with  an  ''if"?  No,  oh  no.  He 
gave  him  His  blessing.  He  said.  Do  you 
doubt  My  willingness.?  Listen.  "I  will;  be 
thou  clean,"  and  the  man  was  clean.  So 
that  if  you  are  coming  upon  a  crutch  to-night, 
come.     If  you  are  coming  to-night,  saying  as 

95 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

you  come,  I  don't  think  there  is  much  in  this, 
we  have  heard  this  kind  of  thing  before;  if  you 
are  saying,  as  many  a  man  has  said  to  me, 
Oh,  I  have  been  out  in  the  after-meeting  be- 
fore, never  mind,  come  on  the  half  chance. 
Take  your  half  chance.  That  is  what  Christ 
has  come  to  do  now,  just  to  give  you  a 
gleam  of  light.  Oh,  a  great  deal  more  than 
that;  but  that  is  the  first  thing,  and  if  you 
want  to  be  made  whole,  I  tell  you,  man,  the 
fact  that  you  are  seeking  light  is  a  sign,  or 
ought  to  be  a  sign  to  you,  that  there  may  be 
a  chance  even  for  you. 

Now,  follow  to  the  last  of  these  points,  the 
royalty  of  will,  the  revelation  of  degradation, 
the  renewal  of  hope,  and  the  requirement  of 
submission.  Let  me  talk  now  as  out  of  the 
experience  of  the  man  himself  who  lies  in  the 
porch.  He  asks  me  if  I  want  to  be  made 
whole?  Of  course  I  do.  He  asks  me  if  I 
want  to  be  made  whole?  What  is  the  use, 
I  can't.  He  asks  me  if  I  want  to  be  made 
whole?  He  must  mean  something;  surely 
He  means  something.  I  am  inclined  to  think 
He  means  something.  If  so,  I  shall  have  to 
do  whatever  He  says.  Ah,  that  is  it.  That 
is  the  last  thing. 

96 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

The  question  must  come  to  that  point.  It 
is  a  wonderful  question,  one  of  Christ's  ques- 
tions, recognising  the  man's  royalty  of  will, 
standing  outside  him  until  he  wants  Him, 
and  then  flashing  upon  him  his  own  degrada- 
tion, and  making  him  say  there  was  no  chance, 
and  yet  kindling  in  his  heart  the  new  passion 
for  wholeness;  and  then  suggesting,  so  that 
the  man  cannot  escape  the  suggestion,  that  if 
this  Stranger  was  going  to  do  anything  for 
him,  then  he  must  be  willing  to  do  what  the 
Stranger  should  tell  him  to  do.  So  far  it  is 
all  mental. 

What  is  the  next  thing?  Now  Christ 
passes  from  the  realm  of  the  mind  into  the 
realm  of  action,  and  He  says  to  him  three 
things  altogether,  ''Arise,  take  up  thy  bed, 
and  walk. "  I  do  not  want  to  insult  your  in- 
telligence, and  yet  I  want  you  to  remember 
He  does  not  say,  "Walk,  take  up  thy  bed, 
and  Arise."  Get  right  hold  of  that.  That 
is  what  some  of  you  are  trying  to  do.  You 
are  trying  to  walk  before  you  are  up.  You 
can't  do  it!  He  began  with  the  first  thing, 
and  then  the  second  thing,  and  then  the  third 
thing.  ''Arise,  take  up  thy  bed" — some  of 
you  would  have  left  out  the  middle  of  it;  some 

97 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

of  you  would  have  said,  Arise  and  walk;  oh 
no,  the  value  of  it  you  will  see  presently — » 
''Arise,  take  up  thy  bed,  and  walk." 

Now,  what  is  the  first  thing  a  man  has  to 
do  if  he  is  going  to  be  made  whole?  First, 
''Arise."  But  what  is  this.?  What  is  the 
rising  that  this  man  is  called  to  do?  I  pray 
you  notice  very  carefully  what  this  is.  It  is 
the  one  thing  that  he  can't  do,  that  Christ 
tells  him  to  do  first.  That  is  what  made  me 
say  at  the  beginning  of  the  sermon  that  if  I 
had  been  in  that  crowd,  I  think  I  would  have 
protested. 

Let  us  go  back,  and  imagine  we  are  there. 
The  porches,  the  sick  folk,  this  worst  case  of 
all.  A  Stranger  coming  through,  suddenly 
stops  and  says,  Do  you  want  to  be  made 
whole?  and  the  man  says.  It  is  no  use,  I  can't 
get  into  the  water,  there  is  nobody  to  put  me 
in.  And  then  the  Stranger  says  "Arise!" 
Why,  my  dear  sir,  I  should  feel  inclined  to 
say  to  Him,  This  is  absurd;  this  is  the  one 
thing  the  man  can't  do.  What  do  you  sup- 
pose he  is  lying  here  for  all  these  years,  if  he 
could  get  up?  Of  course  he  can't  arise.  I 
am  prepared  to  say  to  this  Stranger,  first,  it 
is  impossible;  and  therefore  it  is  unreason- 
98 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

able;  and  I  am  not  going  to  change  these  de- 
cisions. Impossible,  and  unreasonable,  and 
I  utter  my  protest. 

Why,  what  is  this!  The  man  is  up!  The 
man  is  up  while  I  am  arguing!  Was  I  wrong 
to  say  it  was  impossible?  Certainly  not. 
Was  I  wrong  to  say  it  was  unreasonable? 
Certainly  not.  But  he  is  up.  I  know  it,  but 
he  has  done  the  impossible  and  the  unreason- 
able thing. 

That  is  the  miracle  of  Christianity.  That 
is  the  revelation  of  Christ's  perpetual  method 
with  a  man  He  is  going  to  heal.  Are  you  in 
the  grip  of  some  evil  passion,  of  some  evil 
habit?  For  I  call  you  to  notice  that  sin  in 
every  man  focuses  itself  at  some  one  point 
pre-eminently,  and  you  know  that  you  would 
have  been  in  the  Kingdom  of  God  years  ago, 
but  for  one  thing.  You  know  what  the  one 
thing  is,  and  when  Christ  begins  to  deal  with 
you,  He  brings  you  face  to  face  with  your  im- 
possibility, and  He  says,  *'Now,  begin  there!" 

To  the  young  man  who  was  a  ruler,  and 
wealthy,  Jesus  said,  ''One  thing  thou  lack- 
est."  What  was  the  one  thing  he  lacked? 
Some  men  would  have  said  it  was  poverty. 
But  these  are  the  men  who  do  not  read  their 

99 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

Bible  carefully.  What  was  it  he  lacked? 
Control!  "Follow  Me."  But  what  was  the 
hindrance  between  his  life  of  self-control  and 
his  life  of  being  controlled  by  another?  What 
lay  between?  His  wealth.  Now,  Christ  said, 
Sell  that,  give  that  up,  put  that  away.  There 
was  nothing  more  impossible  in  all  that  man's 
life  than  that  he  should  part  with  his  wealth, 
and  He  brought  him  face  to  face  with  his  im- 
possibility. 

There  was  a  man  in  the  synagogue  one 
day  whom  Jesus  called  out,  and  he  came  and 
stood  in  front.  What  is  the  matter  with  that 
man?  A  withered  hand!  What  will  Christ 
tell  him  to  do,  to  hold  his  other  hand  up? 
No,  certainly  not.  What  then?  To  hold  out 
the  withered  hand!  the  one  he  can't  hold  out. 
He  always  brings  the  man  face  to  face  with 
the  impossible  thing.  Always  this,  always 
this — the  impossible  thing! 

My  dear  sir,  Christ  is  not  going  to  ask  you 
to  give  up  the  drink.  Certainly  not.  Why 
not?  Because  it  is  not  your  impossible  thing. 
He  is  not  going  to  ask  you,  my  dear  sir,  to 
sign  a  pledge  against  swearing.  Why  not? 
Because  you  never  do  it.  That  is  the  human 
method.     The  human  method  is  to  get  one, 

lOO 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

or  two,  or  three  little  pledges,  and  try  to  make 
them  fit  everybody.  And  oh,  how  eager  men 
are  to  give  up  their  brothers'  idols! 

Oh,  the  difficulty  of  it,  and  yet  the  magnifi- 
cence of  it!  Christ  is  dealing  with  every  man 
alone  just  now,  and  you  know  what  He  is  say- 
ing to  you  at  your  weakest  point:  Begin  and 
do  the  right  thing.     Arise! 

But  now  I  say,  while  I  am  arguing,  the 
man  has  done  it,  and  you  may  do  it.  Shall  we 
try  and  find  out  how  this  man  did  it?  This  is 
the  great  secret.  There  is  no  problem  of  such 
interest  as  to  know  how  that  man  got  up 
when  he  could  not  get  up.  I  will  tell  you 
exactly  how  it  happened,  and  I  will  tell  you 
because  I  know,  experimentally  and  person- 
ally, how  it  happened. 

Let  us  look  at  it.  Christ  first  addressed 
his  will — Wilt  thou?  That  is  the  first  thing. 
When  Christ  says  ''Arise!"  it  means  that 
His  will  is  that  the  man  should  be  made 
whole.  Now,  mark  another  thing.  There  is 
power  enough  in  Christ  to  make  him  whole. 
Christ  is  quite  equal  to  supply  him  with  all  he 
needs.  There  is,  however,  only  one  way  in 
which  there  can  be  connection  made  between 
the  power  of  Christ  and  the  impotence  of  the 

lOI 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

man.  The  man  cannot;  Christ  can.  How 
are  you  going  to  get  together  the  man's  can- 
not and  Christ's  can?  That  is  what  we  want 
to  find  out.  When  Christ  said  ''Arise,"  the 
man  said  to  himself,  I  want  to  be  made  whole, 
but  it's  no  good,  yet  I  wonder  what  this  Man 
means.  I  will  do  what  He  says.  I  cannot, 
but  I  will,  because  He  says  so. 

Now  mark,  Christ's  will  and  the  man's 
will  touch,  and  in  that  connection,  the  con- 
nection of  will  with  will,  the  power  of  the 
Christ  flashes  into  the  man,  and  he  stands 
erect,  not  in  the  energy  of  will,  but  in  the 
energy  of  Christ,  which  has  become  his,  be- 
cause he  has  submitted  his  will  to  the  will  of 
the  Christ. 

That  is  the  way  you  are  going  to  master 
that  evil  thing  in  your  life,  my  brother,  or  you 
will  never  master  it.  It  is  the  Christ  power 
that  you  need  to  set  you  on  your  feet  and 
make  you  live.  And  you  can  only  come  into 
connection  with  the  Christ  power  when  you 
will  to  do  what  He  tells  you  to  do.  Oh,  but 
you  say,  I  cannot.  As  long  as  you  say  that, 
you  will  not.  But  supposing  you  try  another 
way.  Say  no  longer  ''I  will,"  you  have 
said  that  scores  of  times,  and  been  beaten. 

I02 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

Do  not  say  * '  I  cannot, ' '  for  as  long  as  you 
say  that  you  never  will.  What,  then,  shall 
you  say?  Say  this,  '*I  cannot,  but  because 
He  said  so  I  will!"  You  see  in  that  there  is 
an  abandonment  to  Him,  you  are  handing 
your  life  over  to  Him,  you  do  it  in  obedience 
to  Him;  and  whenever  a  man  takes  that 
stand,  all  the  power  he  needs  for  the  break- 
ing of  the  chains  that  bind  him  are  at  his  dis- 
posal, and  he  will  stand  up  erect,  able  to  do 
the  impossible,  doing  by  faith  the  unreason- 
able, because  his  abandonment  of  will  and  his 
act  of  faith  have  brought  him  into  living  con- 
tact with  the  Christ  of  God. 

And  now  the  man  is  up,  what  next? 
**Take  up  thy  bed,  and  walk."  Take  up  thy 
bed!  I  think  one  of  the  most  illuminative 
and  most  beautiful  things  I  have  ever  seen 
about  that,  is  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Marcus 
Dods,  just  in  a  sentence  and  a  flash.  Dr. 
Dods  says,  ''Why  was  the  man  to  take  up  his 
bed?  In  order  that  there  should  be  no  pro- 
vision made  for  a  relapse. ' '  Ah,  that  is  the 
point.  Did  you  hear  that?  I  don't  want  you 
to  miss  that.  No  provision  for  a  relapse. 
That  is  the  principle  upon  which  a  man  is  to 
start  his  Christian  life. 

103 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

The  temptation  to  this  man  was  to  say, 
Well,  I  am  up;  I  am  up,  really  I  am;  yes, 
really  I  am  up,  and  He  has  done  it;  but  I 
think  I'd  better  leave  that  bed;  I  don't  know 
how  I  will  get  on  in  the  street;  I  don't  know 
how  I  will  get  on  to-morrow;  I'd  better  leave 
it,  in  case  I  have  to  come  back.  As  sure  as 
he  had  done  it,  he  would  have  come  back. 
Oh,  no,  no,  that  won't  do!  Jesus  says.  Take 
it  up,  carry  the  thing  that  has  been  carrying 
you,  master  the  thing  that  has  mastered  you; 
take  it  up!  take  it  up! 

May  I  put  the  principle  in  other  words,  and 
declare  it  thus,  When  you  start  to  follow 
Christ,  burn  your  bridges  behind  you!  Don't 
give  yourself  a  chance  to  go  back.  I  do  not 
think  too  much  emphasis  can  be  laid  upon 
that.  Oh,  the  men  that  leave  the  bridge,  and 
presently  slip  back  over  it!  Here  is  a  man 
who  has  been,  to  revert  to  my  previous  illus- 
tration, the  slave  of  drink;  he  says,  ''Now,  I 
am  going  to  quit  this  in  the  strength  of 
Christ, ' '  and  my  profound  conviction  is  that 
is  the  only  way  a  man  can  quit.  ''I  am  going 
to  do  it."  He  means  it,  and  he  gets  up  and 
starts;  when  he  gets  home,  in  some  cupboard 
in  his  house  is  a  half  bottle  of  whiskey. 
104 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Whole? 

What  is  he  going  to  do  with  it?  Oh,  he 
says,  I  will  drive  the  cork  right  in,  and  I  will 
put  a  seal  on  it,  and  I  won't  touch  it,  and  I 
will  keep  it  in  case  I  am  in  need  of  it.  I  tell 
you,  that  man  will  want  whiskey  within  twenty- 
four  hours.  No,  no!  If  that  has  been  your 
besetment,  when  you  get  home,  smash  it, 
pour  it  out!  I  am  not  going  to  say  soft,  easy 
things.  I  am  not  going  to  tell  you  all  you 
have  to  do  is  to  believe.  I  want  to  tell  you 
that  you  are  to  believe  with  the  belief  that 
manifests  itself  in  works,  and  unless  you  have 
a  belief  like  that,  it  is  worth  nothing.  Burn 
your  bridges,  cut  off  your  companionships, 
and  say  farewell  to  the  men  that  have  been 
luring  you  to  ruin.  Be  a  man,  stand  up,  and 
say  to  the  man  that  tempted  you,  and  drew 
you  aside,  your  dearest  friend,  ''I  have  done, 
I  have  done;  I  am  going  the  other  way." 
And  I  want  to  say  this  to  you,  the  chances 
are  all  in  favour  of  the  fact  that  the  man  will 
come  with  you.  That  is  the  remarkable  thing 
about  it,  that  the  very  man  that  is  luring  you 
to  wrong  will  very  likely  come  with  you,  if 
you  are  only  man  enough  to  burn  your  bridges. 
Take  up  your  bed  and  walk. 

*'And  walk!"     I  would  like  to  tell  you  all 

'05 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

there  is  in  that.  I  will  tell  you  one  thing  that 
is  in  it.  Don't  expect  to  be  carried!  I  want 
to  tell  you  that  the  churches  are  altogether 
too  full  of  perambulator  Christians — men  and 
women  who  have  to  be  nursed  and  coddled  by 
the  ministers  to  keep  them  there  at  all;  men 
and  women  who  say,  "If  you  don't  call,  then 
I  am  going."     Oh,  go!     Give  us  a  chance! 

Now,  if  you  are  going  to  start  to  follow 
Christ,  young  man,  young  woman,  my  brother, 
my  sister,  WALK.  And  remember,  that 
when  He  gives  you  power  to  stand  up.  He 
gives  you  power  to  carry  your  bed,  after  you 
walk — a  great  sufficiency  of  power. 

Then  Jesus  met  this  man  once  again. 
What  did  He  say  to  him  then?  *'Thou  art 
made  whole!"  Has  He  ever  said  that  to 
you?  No,  some  one  says,  I  don't  think  He 
has.  Then  you  are  not  a  Christian.  Don't 
be  satisfied  because  some  one  else  said  you 
are  made  whole.  Never  rest  until  He  has 
said  it  to  your  inmost  soul,  and  you  know  it. 
But  when  He  does  say  it,  then  what?  "Sin 
no  more. ' '  Now  have  done  with  your  argu- 
ment as  to  whether  you  are  compelled  to  sin 
or  not.  He  says  "no."  How  dare  you, 
child  of  His  love,  child  of  His  blood,  child  of 
1 06 


Wouldest  Thou  be  Made  Wholes 

His  power — how  dare  you  go  on  sinning,  and 
say  you  can't  help  it,  when  He  looks  you  in 
the  face,  and  says,  **Sin  no  more!"  He 
never  says  that  to  a  man  until  He  has  made 
him  whole.  He  does  not  begin  by  saying  that. 
He  does  not  go  to  the  man  that  is  impotent, 
to  the  man  that  is  weak.  He  does  not  say  to- 
night to  the  man  that  is  outside  the  Kingdom, 
''Sin  no  more."  He  first  heals  him.  He  first 
gives  him  power,  and  then  He  tells  him  to 
"sin  no  more." 

What  else  does  He  say.?  He  says  this, 
"lest  a  worse  thing  befall  thee."  What 
could  be  worse.'*  To  go  back  to  your  impo- 
tence, to  go  back  to  the  old  disease,  and  have 
no  one  come  and  heal  you.  That  could  be 
worse. 

I  leave  you  to  follow  the  lines  of  that  in- 
definite and  solemn  warning  that  Christ 
uttered  to  the  man,  but  I  pray  you  remember 
it.  If  you  have  been  healed,  if  you  have 
been  made  whole,  if  you  have  been  born 
again,  and  you  are  playing  with  sin,  and  sin- 
ning on,  excusing  it  as  an  infirmity,  remem- 
ber Christ's  word  comes  to-night,  swift, 
scorching,  scathing — "Sin  no  more,  lest  a 
worse  thing  befall  thee. ' ' 
107 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

Where  is  my  last  word  to  be  uttered? 
Back  in  the  middle  of  the  story.  ''Arise," 
says  the  Master,  make  a  beginning,  make  a 
start,  and  make  your  start,  not  by  making  up 
your  mind  that  you  are  going  to  do  great 
things,  but  by  making  up  your  mind  that 
Christ  is  going  to  do  great  things,  and  you 
are  going  to  let  Him.  That  is  the  very  heart 
of  the  message!     That  is  the  secret  of  power! 


108 


Clay  in  the  Potter*s  Hand. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Clay  in  the  Potter's  Hand. 

**As  the  clay  in  the  potter's  hand,  so  are 
ye  in  Mine  hand,  O  house  of  Israel."  (Jere- 
miah xviii.  6.) 

This  is,  in  the  first  instance,  a  national 
statement,  but  since  the  greater  includes  the 
less,  we  may  argue  that  the  principles  which 
regulate  national  life  must  also  influence  in- 
dividual life.  The  only  social  and  national 
upbuilding  possible  must  result  from  the  up- 
building of  the  individual  life  and  character. 
From  this  great  national  statement,  made  to 
God's  chosen  people,  we  shall  take  the  prin- 
ciple and  consider  it  in  its  individual  applica- 
tion. 

Let  us  first  examine  the  principle  itself; 
second,  our  relationship  to  that  principle;  and 
third,  the  deep  underlying  truth,  which  makes 
this  principle  one  in  which  we  may  rejoice. 

Look  first,  then,  at  this  principle.  '*As 
clay  in  the  potter's  hand,  so  are  ye  in  Mine 
hand,  O  house  of  Israel." 

Can  anything  convey  the  truth  of  God's 
III 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

sovereignty  more  forcibly  and  simply  than 
these  words?  If  you  have  ever  seen  the  clay 
on  the  potter's  wheel,  being  moulded  and 
fashioned  by  the  thought  and  will  and  activity 
of  the  potter  himself,  as  the  wheel  revolved, 
you  must  have  been  impressed  with  the  thought 
of  surrender;  for  without  desire  expressed  or 
suggestion  made  the  clay  was  yielded  to  the 
hands  of  the  potter.  It  was  plastic  to  his  will 
and  touch.  God  says,  ''As  clay  is  in  the 
hand  of  the  potter,  so  are  ye  in  Mine  hand,  O 
house  of  Israel.'* 

God  has  designed  and  created  and  sus- 
tained me,  and  I  have  absolutely  no  appeal 
against  His  will.  God  has  supreme  right  to 
do  whatsoever  He  will  with  the  earth,  and 
the  nations,  and  with  each  particular  indi- 
vidual in  the  nations.  If  God  chooses  to 
mark  a  line,  and  say,  ''There  thy  service 
ends/'  have  I  any  right  to  complain.''  If  God 
were  to  take  me  right  out  of  my  present  cir- 
cumstances or  out  of  this  world  to-day,  no 
matter  what  use  I  have  made  of  my  opportu- 
nities here,  have  I  any  right  to  complain  or 
appeal  against  it.?  None.  Whatever  God 
chooses  to  do.  He  has  the  right  to  do.  God 
has  never  ceded  His  sovereign  right  to  the 

112 


Clay  in  the  Potter's  Hand. 

Devil  or  to  any  one  else.  Though  He  still 
permits  evil  to  exist  in  the  world,  He  holds 
the  reins,  and  the  Devil  could  not  touch  a 
single  hair  upon  the  back  of  a  single  camel 
that  belonged  to  Job  until  God  gave  him  per- 
mission. God  reigneth!  He  is  neither  dead 
nor  deposed. 

The  tendency  of  this  day  is  to  a  loose  doc- 
trine of  divine  government,  which  is  producing 
impious  blasphemy  in  the  way  that  men  look 
into  the  face  of  God,  and  tell  Him  what  He 
ought  and  ought  not  to  do.  Blessed  be  His 
name  that  His  ways  are  not  our  ways,  neither 
are  His  thoughts  our  thoughts,  or  how  many 
a  man  would  be  smitten  and  stricken  to  the 
very  death!  How  long-suffering  God  is! 
Clay  in  the  hand  of  the  Potter:  that  is  our 
position,  and  He  can  make  or  break,  mould 
or  fashion  us,  as  He  will,  so  far  as  our  right 
of  resistance  or  questioning  or  complaint  is 
concerned. 

What  is  my  relation  to  this  great  principle 
of  divine  government?  There  is  this  differ- 
ence between  the  clay  and  myself:  I  have 
intelligence,  I  have  will,  but  my  will  is  to  om- 
nipotence as  the  materialism  of  the  clay  is  to  v. 
my   will.     The   clay  is   infinitely  below  the       / 

113 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

I      potter,  and  must  submit  to  his  pleasure.      In 

the  hands  of  God  I  am  yet  more  powerless 

than  the  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter. 

\  What,  then,  is  my  relation  to  this  principle?. 

I     My  proper   attitude    is    to    acknowledge   my 

^  ^      i     weakness,  and  to  say  that  I  have  no  power  to 

alter  my  own  shape  or  substance.     What  I 

am  I  am,  and  out  of  that  I  can  never  evolve 

anything  better.     That  which  is  flesh  is  flesh. 

That  is  my  state  by  nature,  and  the  part  of 

wisdom  is  to  acknowledge  it,  and  take  that 

place  before  God. 

The  next  step  is  to  use  that  will  about 
which  we  talk  so  much,  and  to  act  on  the 
truth  which  Tennyson  saw  when  he  said: 

"Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how; 
Our  wills  are  ours,  to  make  them  Thine." 

We  show  our  wisdom  when  our  weakness  is 
acknowledged  by  yielding  ourselves  to  God 
and  lying  plastic  in  His  hand  that  He  may 
work  His  will  in  our  lives.  There  is  to  be 
perfect  acquiescence  in  the  will  of  God. 

That  is  better  than  resignation,  but  there 
is  something  even  beyond  acquiescence,  it  is 
delight  in  the  will  of  God.  There  must  be 
no  desire  as  to  the  shape  I  am  to  take,  or  as 
to  the  manner  of  my  preparation.  We  must 
114 


Clay  in  the  Potter's  Hand. 

be  willing  to  let  God  work  out  His  purpose  in 
our  lives;  by  sickness,  if  He  so  wills  it,  by 
suffering,  by  sorrow,  by  bereavement,  by 
breaking  us  in  order  to  make  us.  If  I  set  my 
will  up  against  that,  then  I  am  thwarting  the 
Potter,  and  I  am  hindering  His  purpose.  In 
brief,  I  must  abandon  myself  to  God.  I 
must  abandon  myself  to  Him  without  ques- 
tioning as  to  whether  it  is  to  be  there  or  here, 
this  way  or  that  way,  under  these  circum- 
stances or  those;  the  one  question  for  me  to 
ask  must  be,  ''What  is  Thy  will?"  God  is 
King,  and  I  am  to  say  Amen  to  all  His  will. 

Now  look  at  the  purpose  of  God  under- 
lying all  His  dealings  with  us.  Let  every- 
thing else  be  put  out  of  the  vision.  When 
we  get  to  this  point,  though  it  be  through 
heartbreak  and  disappointment,  everything 
else  vanishes  from  sight,  and  only  the  thought 
that  God  is  doing  a  great  work  stands  before 
us.  We  never  saw  this  when  God  was  deal- 
ing with  us.  At  first  we  simply  stood  in  the 
presence  of  God  and  yielded  ourselves  to  His 
will. 

Underlying  this  is  a  deeper  truth.  It  is 
contained  in  that  old  text,  which  no  preacher 
has  ever  exhausted,  which  every  child  loves; 

115 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

a  truth  contained  in  three  short  words;  a  truth 
which  every  child  seems  to  feel,  and  which 
every  aged  saint  confesses  to  have  hardly 
touched  the  fringe  of;  a  truth  which  holds  all 
revelations  and  blessedness  in  it — GOD  IS 
LOVE. 

What  has  that  to  do  with  it? 

Everything.  I  am  clay  in  the  hands  of 
God,  and  I  tremble;  I  am  clay  in  the  hands 
of  Love,  and  I  trust.  God  is  love.  My 
creation  is  the  creation  of  love.  His  purpose 
in  creating  me  was  love.  His  government  is 
the  government  of  love.  He  alone  under- 
stands me  and  knows  all  my  possibilities.  I 
might  live  among  you  for  years,  and  you 
would  not  know  me.  There  are  depths  in 
every  nature  that  no  man  knows.  No  man 
hath  seen  God  at  any  time;  it  is  equally  true 
that  no  man  hath  seen  man  at  any  time.  We 
do  not  even  know  ourselves,  but  God  knows 
us  through  and  through;  He  understands  our 
thoughts  afar  off,  and  there  is  no  hiding  our- 
selves from  the  searching  of  His  eye.  God 
is  love,  and  consequently  when  He  sur- 
rounds me  with  law,  it  is  love  that  fences  me 
round. 

It  is  not  a  hard,  capricious  taskmaster  that 
ii6 


Clay  in  the  Potter's  Hand. 

says,  "Now  I  have  a  being  in  my  hands,  I 
will  enjoy  having  my  way  on  him." 

That  is  human.  No,  it  is  devilish!  God 
says: 

"This  is  the  child  of  My  heart,  this  is  the 
highest  work  of  My  creation,  made  in  My 
image,  and  I  will  hedge  him  about  with  law 
and  commandments,  because  I  love  him  and 
know  all  the  depths  of  his  nature.  If  I  lead 
him  through  tears  and  suffering  and  sorrow, 
they  shall  be  but  the  sweet  ministers  of  My 
tender  love  and  infinite  compassion  for  him." 

Love  is  on  the  throne.  How  can  I  learn 
that?     By  submitting  to  the  kingship. 

Many  people  have  said  to  me: 

"We  don't  love  God.  We  reverence  Him 
and  adore  Him,  but  we  do  not  really  love 
Him.     What  shall  we  do?" 

My  answer  is,  "We  love,  because  He  first 
loved  us." 

How  do  we  find  this  out?  Only  as  we 
face  this  first  fact  of  His  kingship  and  begin 
to  obey  Him.  By  obeying  the  law  a  man 
discovers  the  love  in  the  law. 

Let  me  earnestly  warn  you  against  dividing 
God  into  halves  and  saying:  "This  is  law  and 
that  is  love."  His  law  and  His  love  are 
117 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

identical.  A  man  should  never  talk  about  the 
providence  of  God  as  though  it  were  a  sort  of 
afterthought  by  which  He  helps  a  man  to  bear 
the  severity  of  law.  God's  providence  is 
God's  government,  and  no  man  ever  passes 
into  the  realm  of  love  until  he  recognises 
God's  kingship,  and  submits  at  the  foot  of 
the  cross  to  that  kingship. 

Take  that  exquisite  teaching  of  our  Lord 
when  He  says:  "Be  not  therefore  anxious  for 
the  morrow:  for  the  morrow  will  be  anxious 
for  itself.  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil 
thereof."  He  has  been  speaking  to  His  dis- 
ciples about  food,  and  clothing,  and  the  neces- 
sities of  this  life,  and  then  He  says,  ''Your 
heavenly  Father  knoweth  that  ye  have  need 
of  all  these  things."  If  I  could  see  God  as 
my  Father,  I  could  love  Him.  How,  then, 
am  I  to  come  to  see  Him  as  my  Father.? 
What  does  Jesus  say?  ''Seek  ye  first  the 
kingdom  of  God. ' ' 

You  will  find  the  fatherhood  in  the  king- 
ship of  God,  the  love  of  God  in  the  law  of 
God;  you  will  discover  the  exquisite  tender- 
ness of  the  divine  compassion  when  you  sub- 
mit to  the  sovereignty  of  God,  and  yield 
yourself  to  His  absolute  control.  How  have 
ii8 


Clay  in  the  Potter's  Hand. 

I  come  to  realise  my  mother's  love  to  me  and 
my  father's  love  more  than  I  ever  could  in 
my  childhood?  It  has  been  by  coming  to 
understand  that  the  very  restrictions  which 
they  placed  upon  me  of  old  were  the  restric- 
tions of  an  intense  love  for  me.  I  used  to 
think  they  loved  me  when  they  let  me  have 
my  own  way,  but  I  have  discovered  they  loved 
me  most  when  they  did  not  let  me  have  my 
own  way.  So  men  get  an  insight  into  the 
deep  love  of  God  by  obeying  the  law  of  God, 
which  at  first  seems  irksome,  and  by  submit- 
ting to  this  great  supreme  truth  of  the  sov- 
ereignty of  God. 

On  and  on  God  is  leading  you,  putting  His 
hand  on  this  and  that,  hedging  you  in  here, 
and  holding  you  up  there;  and  it  is  always 
love  that  does  it.  There  is  always  a  more 
marvellous  unfolding  of  His  love  in  these  acts 
of  God,  and  you  will  only  discover  the  love  of 
God  as  your  own  heart  responds,  and  as  you 
submit  yourself  to  His  kingship. 

Most  reverently  do  I  take  the  supreme 
illustration  of  the  love  of  God  from  the  life  of 
my  blessed  Lord.  It  was  He  Who  said,  ''I 
delight  to  do  Thy  will.'*  And  why?  Be- 
cause in  His  perfect,  unquestioning  obedience 
119 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

to  the  will  of  God  He  knew  what  the  love  of 
God  was. 

All  the  divine  blessings  which  we  are  seek- 
ing are  conditioned  upon  this,  that  we  do 
recognise  God's  kingship,  and  submit  to  it 
really,  absolutely,  with  thorough  abandonment 
of  all  questioning.  Some  people  tell  us  that 
we  should  always  count  the  cost.  We  ought, 
in  everything  except  this.  Here  there  should 
be  no  counting  the  cost;  and  by  refusing  to 
count  the  cost  we  count  the  cost  in  the  best 
way;  by  refusing  to  attempt  to  reckon  up  God 
and  ourselves  by  the  puny  laws  of  human 
mathematics  we  reach  the  divine  mathematics 
which  take  good  care  of  us  all  the  way,  and 
see  to  it  that  we  abide  in  Him  forever.  To 
rebel  against  this  law  is  to  take  my  life  for  a 
little  while  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Potter,  and 
by  so  doing  to  render  it  purposeless  and 
shapeless,  so  that  it  is  to  become  loss 
and  ruin.  To  rebel  is  useless.  God's  law  and 
righteousness  are  vindicated  in  human  failure 
as  well  as  in  human  success,  and  the  man 
who  makes  shipwreck  is  the  man  who,  know- 
ing the  will  of  God,  disobeys,  and  goes  out 
into  the  darkling  void  where  God  is  not. 
That  man  in  his  eternal  loss  vindicates  the 
1 20 


Clay  in  the  Potter's  Hand. 

kingship  of  Jehovah.  But,  my  brother,  what 
God  wants  is  your  submission,  because  He 
loves  to  take  you,  perhaps  to  break  you,  but 
for  your  good,  for  I  read  that  the  potter  broke 
the  vessel  on  the  wheel,  "and  he  did  make  it 
again,''     The  secret  of  all  blessing  is: 

**I  worship  thee,  sweet  will  of  God, 
And  all  thy  ways  adore ; 
And  every  day  I  live,  I  learn 
To  love  thee  more  and  more." 


121 


The    Divine    Government   of   Human 
Lives. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The    Divine   Government   of    Human 
Lives. 

*' Jehovah  our  God  spake  unto  us  in  Horeb. 
saying,  Ye  have  dwelt  long  enough  in  this 
mountain."     (Deut.  i.  6.) 

The  sojourn  of  Israel,  the  ancient  people 
of  God,  at  Horeb  had  been  important  and 
interesting.  There  they  had  received  from 
God  the  words  of  the  law,  the  pattern  of  the 
tabernacle,  and  the  ritual  of  worship.  They 
had  there  had  revelations  of  the  glory  of  God, 
and  revelations  of  their  own  hearts;  they  had 
found  in  themselves  rebellion  and  sin,  even  in 
that  brief  time.  They  had  also  had  revela- 
tions of  the  tenderness  and  compassion  of 
their  God. 

At  last  the  organisation  is  complete;  they 
are  ready  to  move  forward  and  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  land  which  God  has  given  them, 
and  the  word  comes  to  them  suddenly,  with  a 
pertinence  that  reminds  them  that  in  actual 
practice  they  are  a  theocracy  under  the  direct 
government  of   God.     Every  man  of   them 

125 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

holds  to  the  theory  of  the  divine  government; 
but  now  a  sudden  order  takes  hold  of  the 
creed  which  they  had  professed,  and  turns  it 
into  a  fact  to  be  put  into  practice.  To  these 
people  sojourning  at  the  mount,  in  the  place 
of  revelation,  in  the  place  of  wonderful  bless- 
ing, the  word  comes  swift  and  sudden  and 
startling: 

''Ye  have  dwelt  long  enough  in  this  moun- 
tain."    (Deut.  i.  6.) 

This  was  indeed  a  startling  and  urgent 
word,  revealing  certain  great  truths  concern- 
ing this  government  of  God,  which  it  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  that  we  should  perpetually 
bear  in  mind. 

It  reveals  to  me,  first  of  all,  that  the  divine 
government  is  a  fact.  It  also  reveals  certain 
truths  concerning  that  divine  government, 
namely: 

1.  That  the  divine  government  is  a  dis- 
turbing element  in  human  life. 

2.  That  the  divine  government  is  a  pro- 
gressive element  in  human  life. 

3.  That  the  divine  government  is  a 
methodical  element  in  human  life. 

If  it  be  a  fact  that  God  governs  my  life 
and  your  life,  then  He  will  disturb  us;   He 
126 


Divine  Government  of  Human  Lives. 

will  disturb  us  in  order  that  we  may  make 
progress;  and  He  will  disturb  us  that  we  may 
make  progress  along  certain  definitely  marked 
lines. 

First  of  all,  then,  these  words  reveal  the 
fact  of  the  divine  government.  How  easy  it 
would  have  been  for  Israel  to  settle  down 
there  and  say,  ''We  believe  in  God  and  in  the 
divine  government."  Had  there  been  no 
voice  speaking  to  them  in  actual  leading,  no 
word  coming  to  disturb  them,  they  might  have 
come  to  hold  the  divine  government  merely 
as  a  theory.  Then  it  would  have  passed  out 
of  their  lives,  and  would  have  failed  to  be 
what  it  was  intended  to  be  to  them. 

Beloved,  let  me  remind  you  that  the  divine 
government  is  a  very  definite  fact.  God  is 
absolute  monarch  wherever  He  is  King  at  all. 
His  government  is  autocratic.  He  does  not 
consult  us  as  to  what  He  shall  do  with  us, 
where  He  shall  send  us,  what  He  would  have 
us  to  do.  Moreover,  His  government  is  an 
imperative  government.  He  never  permits 
us  to  make  compromises  with  Him  for  a  single 
moment.  He  speaks  the  word  of  authority. 
He  marks  the  path  without  ever  consulting 
us,  and  having  done  so,  our  only  relationship 
127 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

to  that  government  is  that  of  implicit,   un- 
questioning, immediate  obedience. 

Now,  consider  what  this  government  means. 
Imagine  the  stir  that  must  have  been  created 
in  that  camp  when  the  word  came,  *'Ye  have 
dwelt  long  enough  in  this  mountain. ' '  Im- 
agine how  tents  would  be  struck,  and  camels 
loaded  throughout  the  whole  of  the  camp. 
The  people,  who  had  been  living  there  for  a 
little  more  than  a  year,  were  suddenly  rooted 
up  and  ordered  to  move  away.  Think  how 
at  the  sudden  proclamation  of  that  word  of 
God  all  social  and  family  arrangements  had 
to  be  set  aside.  That  word  touched  every 
tent  and  touched  every  soul,  and  wherever 
families  had  arranged  to  meet  together  at  a 
certain  time  for  social  intercourse,  the  whole 
plan  was  swept  away.  The  divine  voice  had 
spoken,  '*Ye  have  tarried  long  enough,"  and 
no  engagement  is  of  sufficient  importance  to 
hinder  the  divine  word.  Tents  must  be  struck 
immediately.  All  the  minor  arrangements  of 
every-day  life,  important  in  their  place,  must 
be  set  on  one  side,  because  the  word  of  the 
King  is  supreme,  and  is  sufficient  in  itself  to 
set  aside  every  arrangement  that  these  people 
have  made. 

128 


Divine  Government  of  Human  Lives. 

What  a  disturbing  business!  What  a  seri- 
ous thing  to  be  under  the  authority  of  some 
one  who  can  upset  everything  in  our  lives 
without  consulting  us,  and  by  a  word  can 
mark  for  us  the  moment  of  departure!  That 
is  the  government  of  God.  We  may  talk  and 
sing  about  the  kingdom,  and  pray  about  the 
kingdom,  but  until  we  face  that  fact  we  know 
nothing  of  what  it  is  to  be  living  in  the  king- 
dom of  God  and  under  the  government  of  the 
Most  High. 

Human  arrangements  are  constantly  dis- 
turbed in  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  what  is 
more  remarkable  still,  divine  plans  seem  to  be 
changed,  and  orders  that  we  have  most  defin- 
itely received  from  on  high  are  counter- 
manded, and  the  whole  program  of  life  again 
and  again  is  changed  for  the  men  and  women 
who  are  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  are  de- 
sirous of  obeying  only  His  will.  To-day  a 
man  is  in  a  sphere  where  God  has  put  him, 
and  on  every  hand  God  is  graciously  setting 
His  seal  upon  the  work  that  He  has  given 
him  to  do.  But  the  divine  voice  comes:  ''Ye 
have  tarried  here  long  enough. ' '  That  work 
must  be  dropped.  All  its  hallowed  associa- 
tions must  be  left  behind,  and  all  the  tender 
129 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

ties  that  have  become  entwined  around  the 
heart  on  account  of  that  work  must  be 
snapped.  The  divine  voice  is  heard — the 
only  voice  to  which  a  man  in  the  kingdom  of 
God  should  pay  any  attention — and  the  sphere 
of  work  entered  into  because  the  divine  finger 
pointed  that  way  must  be  left  the  moment 
that  voice  bids  the  man  move  forward. 

God  comes  into  our  lives  in  strange,  mys- 
terious ways  when  we  are  under  His  govern- 
ment. He  may  pluck  away  a  loved  one,  and 
leave  us  with  broken  hearts,  and  almost  deso- 
late homes  for  a  time.  Earthly  friendships 
are  often  severed  by  divine  government. 
Two  souls  knit  together  in  the  sacred  bond  of 
friendship,  seemingly  created  for  mutual  ser- 
vice in  the  kingdom  of  God,  are  taken  by  the 
divine  government  and  separated  by  thousands 
of  miles.  Divine  government  is  a  disturbing 
element,  breaking  cherished  plans,  and  associa- 
tions, and  hopes.  The  aspiration  of  our 
heart,  centered  upon  a  friend,  a  child,  an 
event,  is  suddenly  crushed,  and  in  a  moment 
we  find  ourselves  stranded  in  darkness!  All 
this  comes  to  men  and  women  in  the  line 
of  the  divine  government.  It  is  a  disturb- 
ing element  in  every  human  life.  God  has 
130 


Divine  Government  of  Human  Lives. 

made  His  heroes  and  heroines  by  such  deal- 
ings. 

In  the  twelfth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of 
Luke,  verses  thirty-five  and  thirty-six,  we 
have  very  clearly  indicated  the  attitude  of  a 
Christian. 

"Let  your  loins  be  girded  about,  and  your 
lamps  burning;  and  be  ye  yourselves  like  unto 
men  looking  for  their  Lord,  when  He  shall 
return  from  the  marriage  feast;  that,  when 
He  Cometh  and  knocketh,  they  may  straight- 
way open  unto  Him. " 

Here  is  the  character  of  the  Christian. 
The  loins  girded  like  a  pilgrim;  no  settling 
down  amid  the  things  of  the  earth,  but  a  con- 
tinual waiting  for  the  divine  voice;  ready  to 
be  disturbed  when  God  would  disturb;  willing 
ever  to  respond  to  the  expression  of  the  divine 
will,  and  satisfied  in  obedience.  Of  course 
the  ultimate  issue  of  this  is  the  waiting  for  the 
Master  Himself  to  come,  but  if  I  am  living 
with  my  loins  girded,  waiting  for  the  last  sum- 
mons that  calls  me  to  fellowship  in  the  ages 
beyond,  then  am  I  ready  for  every  call  that 
precedes,  whether  it  be  to  suffering  or  to 
service. 

The  same  thing  is  taught  by  Paul  in  his 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

letter  to  the  Romans,  the  thirteenth  chapter, 
the  eleventh  and  twelfth  verses:  "And  this, 
knowing  the  season,  that  already  it  is  time  for 
you  to  awake  out  of  sleep:  for  now  is  salva- 
tion nearer  to  us  than  when  we  first  believed. 
The  night  is  far  spent,  and  the  day  is  at  hand: 
let  us  therefore  cast  off  the  works  of  darkness, 
and  let  us  put  on  the  armour  of  light. ' ' 

The  figure  is  that  of  a  military  camp. 
Soldiers  have  been  sleeping  in  their  tents, 
and  suddenly  the  cry  goes  out  that  the  day  is 
breaking.  Men  rise,  fling  off  the  garments 
of  the  night,  and  gird  on  the  armour,  ready  for 
the  coming  of  the  king  and  for  the  word  of 
command.  The  awakening  here  referred  to 
is  at  the  end  of  the  dispensation,  but  it  has  its 
application  to  the  whole  of  life.  Men  and 
women  who  are  under  the  government  of  God 
are  always  homeless  men  and  women,  sojourn- 
ers in  tents,  never  dwelling  in  houses.  That 
is  the  character  of  the  people  whom  God 
governs. 

But  you  ask,  ''Would  you  break  down 
home  life?" 

Of  course  I  would  not;  but  my  home  is  to 
be  my  lodging-place,  and  if  God  orders  me  to 
strike  my  tent  and  move  away,  immediately 
132 


Divine  Government  of  Human  Lives. 

the  tent  is  to  be  struck  and  I  am  to  move. 
See  how  Abraham,  the  father  of  the  faithful, 
lived.  "A  tent  and  an  altar,  a  tent  and  an 
altar."  He  pitched  his  tent  and  erected  his 
altar.  His  altar  was  the  mark  of  the  fact  that 
he  lived  in  relationship  to  the  divine.  The 
tent  marked  the  fact  that  he  was  only  a  so- 
journer, a  stranger,  and  a  pilgrim  upon  the 
road. 

The  divine  government  is  a  disturbing 
element.  My  duty  is  so  to  live  that  I  shall 
be  ready  to  be  disturbed  at  any  moment  when 
God  pleases. 

Now  turn  to  the  second  point,  because 
that  explains  the,  first.  The  divine  govern- 
ment is  not  only  a  disturbing  element  in 
human  life,  it  is  a  progressive  element. 

God  disturbs  a  man.  Why.?  To  move 
him  on  to  something  better — never  that  there 
may  be  retrogression,  never  merely  for  the 
sake  of  disturbance.  If  God  asks  me  to 
strike  my  tent  to-day  and  move  out  yonder, 
it  is  because  yonder  there  is  a  higher  possibil- 
ity, a  more  glorious  outlook,  a  more  perfect 
sphere.  I  may  not  see  the  advantage  at  first, 
but  God's  eye  is  always  on  the  consummation, 
and  He  moves  His  people  step  by  step  at  the 

133 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

right  moment  in  the  right  way,  and  ever,  ever 
onward,  towards  that  glorious  consummation. 

Progress  is  not  necessarily  pleasant. 
Notice  how,  years  after,  Moses  speaks  of  the 
departure  from  Horeb.  In  the  nineteenth 
verse  of  the  first  chapter  of  Dueteronomy,  he 
says: 

*'And  we  journeyed  from  Horeb,  and  went 
through  all  that  great  and  terrible  wilderness, 
which  ye  saw,  by  the  way  to  the  hill -country 
of  the  Amorites,  as  Jehovah  our  God  com- 
manded us;  and  we  came  to  Kadesh-barnea. '  * 

That  was  the  movement.  But  how? 
Through  that  great  and  terrible  wilderness. 
It  was  not  a  pleasant  experience,  but  it  was 
progress;  it  was  moving  onward.  It  was  a 
further  march  into  the  purposes  of  God. 

Now,  beloved,  if  the  divine  government  is 
a  disturbing  element,  to  be  undisturbed  is  to 
be  God-forsaken.  If  we  know  nothing  of  the 
voice  calling  us  to  alter  plans,  and  set  aside 
arrangements,  and  simply  step  out  upon  the 
divine  word  in  faith  as  Abraham  did,  then  we 
are  God-forsaken  men  and  women.  Beyond 
that,  to  be  God-forsaken  is  to  settle  to  failure. 

*'0h,"  you  say,  "let  me  stay  here;  my 
home  is  so  comfortable,  I  am  so  happy. ' ' 

134 


Divine  Government  of  Human  Lives. 

God  says:  "Move  from  this  place  and  go 
yonder. ' ' 

You  say:  "I  cannot.  Let  me  remain 
where  I  am.'* 

What  are  you  asking?  You  are  asking  for 
your  own  breakdown  and  failure.  God's  plan 
for  you  is  progress,  growth;  and  you  are  ask- 
ing for  arrested  development  and  for  failure. 

*'0h,  no,"  you  say,  ''I  am  only  asking 
not  to  be  disturbed. ' ' 

It  is  the  same  thing.  When  you  and  I 
pray,  in  our  foolishness,  that  God  will  not  dis- 
turb us,  we  ask  Him  to  give  us  no  more  pro- 
gress, but  to  let  us  settle  where  we  are  and 
pass  down  to  failure. 

There  is  no  more  exquisite  figure,  I  think, 
in  the  whole  Book  of  God  of  the  disturbing 
element  of  divine  government  and  its  issue 
than  that  in  the  thirty-second  chapter  of  Deu- 
teronomy. It  is  a  beautiful  picture.  Read 
from  the  ninth  verse,  ''For  Jehovah's  portion 
is  His  people."  This  is  exactly  what  Paul 
says  to  the  Ephesians  about  God's  inheritance 
in  the  saints.  Very  well,  then,  if  the  Lord's 
portion  is  His  people,  He  will  value'  His 
people;  and  what  will  He  do  to  them? 

* 'Jacob  is  the  lot  of  His  inheritance.     He 

135 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

found  him  in  a  desert  land,  and  in  the  waste 
howling  wilderness;  He  compassed  him  about, 
He  cared  for  him.  He  kept  him  as  the  apple 
of  His  eye.  As  an  eagle  that  stirreth  up  her 
nest,  that  fluttereth  over  her  young.  He  spread 
abroad  His  wings,  He  took  them.  He  bare 
them  on  His  pinions.  Jehovah  alone  did  lead 
him,  and  there  was  no  foreign  god  with  him. 
He  made  him  ride  on  the  high  places  of  the 
earth,  and  he  did  eat  the  increase  of  the 
field;  and  He  made  him  to  suck  honey  out  of 
the  rock,  and  oil  out  of  the  flinty  rock;  butter 
of  the  herd  and  milk  of  the  flock,  with  fat  of 
lambs,  and  rams  of  the  breed  of  Bashan,  and 
goats,  with  the  finest  of  the  wheat;  and  of  the 
blood  of  the  grape  thou  drankest  wine. ' ' 

That  whole  passage  is  full  of  exquisite 
beauty,  but  here  is  what  I  want  you  to  notice. 
Jehovah's  portion  is  His  people;  where  did 
He  find  them .'*  ' '  In  the  waste  howling  wilder- 
ness, and  He  compassed  them  about. ' '  Then 
comes  the  verse  that  reveals  both  the  disturb- 
ing and  the  progressive  elements  in  divine 
government:  ''As  an  eagle  that  stirreth  up 
her  nest,  that  fluttereth  over  her  young.  He 
spread  abroad  His  wings,  He  took  them.  He 
bare  them  on  His  pinions." 
136 


Divine  Government  of  Human  Lives. 

That  picture  is  full  of  poetry,  full  of  life 
and  truth  and  beauty.  Mark  it.  Have  you 
ever  seen  an  eagle  stir  up  her  nest?  You 
know  what  happens.  There  in  the  nest,  right 
upon  the  rocky  height,  are  the  eaglets;  the 
mother  eagle  comes,  and  taking  hold  of  them, 
flings  them  out  of  their  nest.  They  were  so 
comfortable  there,  but  she  flings  them  right 
out  of  the  nest  high  above  the  earth.  They 
begin  to  fall  straightway.  They  have  never 
been  in  air  before;  they  have  always  been  in 
the  nest. 

Is  not  that  mother  bird  cruel?  Why  does 
she  disturb  the  eaglets? 

Watch  her  and  you  will  understand.  As 
long  as  you  look  upon  the  struggling  eaglets 
in  the  air  you  miss  the  point.  Watch  the 
eagle.  Having  stirred  up  her  nest,  ''she 
spreadeth  abroad  her  pinions,"  the  pinions 
that  beat  the  air  behind  her  as  she  rises 
superior  to  it.  Where  are  the  eaglets? 
Struggling,  falling.  She  is  superior;  they 
are  falling.  Then  what  does  she  do?  ''She 
beareth  them  on  her  pinions. ' '  She  swoops 
beneath  them,  catches  them  on  her  wings, 
and  bears  them  up.  What  is  she  doing? 
Teaching    them    to    fly.      She    drops    them 

137 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

again,  and  again  they  struggle  in  the  air,  but 
this  time  not  so  helplessly.  They  are  finding 
out  what  she  means.  She  spreads  her  pin- 
ions to  show  them  how  to  fly,  and  as  they  fall 
again,  she  catches  them  again. 

That  is  how  God  deals  with  you  and  with 
me.  Has  He  been  stirring  up  your  nest? 
Has  He  flung  you  out  until  you  felt  lost  in  an 
element  that  was  new  and  strange?  Look  at 
Him.  He  is  not  lost  in  that  element.  He 
spreads  out  the  wings  of  His  omnipotence  to 
teach  us  how  to  soar.  What  then?  He 
comes  beneath  us  and  catches  us  on  His 
wings.  We  thought  when  He  flung  us  out 
of  the  nest  it  was  unkind.  No;  He  was 
teaching  us  to  fly  that  we  might  enter  into  the 
spirit  of  the  promise,  "They  shall  mount  up 
with  wings,  as  eagles."  He  would  teach  us 
how  to  use  the  gifts  which  He  has  bestowed 
on  us,  and  which  we  cannot  use  as  long  as  we 
are  in  the  nest. 

Imagine  the  issue  of  keeping  eaglets  in  the 
nest!  It  would  be  contrary  to  their  nature, 
contrary  to  the  purposes  for  which  they  are 
framed  and  fitted.  There  is  a  purpose  in  the 
eagle.  What  is  it?  Flight  sunward.  There 
is  a  purpose  in  your  life,  newborn  child  of 

138 


Divine  Government  of  Human  Lives. 

God.  What  is  it?  Flight  sunward,  heaven- 
ward, Godward.  If  you  stop  in  the  nest  you 
will  never  get  there.  God  comes  into  your 
life  and  disturbs  you,  breaks  up  your  plans, 
and  extinguishes  your  hopes,  the  lights  that 
have  lured  you  on.  He  spoils  everything; 
what  for?  That  He  may  get  you  on  His 
wings  and  teach  you  the  secret  forces  of  your 
own  life,  and  lead  you  to  higher  development 
and  higher  purposes.  This  government  of 
God  is  a  disturbing  element,  but,  praise  His 
name!  it  is  a  progressive  element. 

Now  take  the  third  point.  Not  only  is  the 
divine  government  disturbing  and  progressive, 
but  it  is  methodical.  Strike  your  tents,  get 
away  from  this  mountain.  Where  to?  The 
land!  That  is  the  ultimate  issue — possession 
of  the  land. 

Now  notice,  beloved,  that  not  only  is  there 
an  ultimate  issue  in  the  mind  of  God  when 
He  disturbs  His  people,  but  there  is  clearly 
marked  direction.  We  see  this  in  the  seventh 
verse  of  this  chapter: 

'*Turn  you,  and  take  your  journey,  and  go 
to  the  hill-country  of  the  Amorites,  and  unto 
all  the  places  nigh  thereunto,  in  the  Arabah, 
in  the  hill-country,  and  in  the  lowland,  and  in 

^39 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

the  South,  and  by  the  seashore,  the  land  of 
the  Canaanites,  and  Lebanon,  as  far  as  the 
great  river,  the  river  Euphrates. ' ' 

There  is  direction  towards  possession. 

But  the  most  exquisite  statement  of  all  that 
marks  the  divine  arrangement  for  the  journey 
is  in  the  thirty-second  and  the  thirty-third 
verses:  "  .  .  .  .  Jehovah  your  God,  Who 
went  before  you  in  the  way,  to  seek  you  out 
a  place  to  pitch  your  tents  in,  in  fire  by  night, 
to  show  you  by  what  way  ye  should  go,  and 
in  the  cloud  by  day. ' ' 

Did  you  ever  read  anything  more  beautiful 
than  that?  It  is  one  of  those  things  that  abso- 
lutely master  me.  God  going  in  front;  what 
for?  Choosing  them  a  place  in  which  to  pitch 
their  tent.  They  have  struck  their  tents,  and 
given  up  their  plans,  obedient  to  the  disturb- 
ing voice  of  His  government.  Then  what 
does  He  do?  He  goes  in  front  and  shows 
them  the  next  place.  At  nightfall  the  cloud 
stands  still  and  changes  into  a  pillar  of  fire, 
giving  them  light. 

There  is  nothing  haphazard  or  accidental 

in    such    a   life.      God's    people   move    in    a 

plainly  marked  pathway,  step  by  step.     The 

government  of  God  not  only  disturbs  them, 

140 


Divine  Government  of  Human  Lives. 

and  disturbs  them  for  progress,  but  every  inch 
of  the  way  He  has  arranged  for  them. 

O  men  and  women,  as  we  ask  you  to  sub- 
mit to  the  government  of  God,  remember  this: 
God  is  not  making  an  experiment  with  you. 
We  are  not  pawns  upon  a  chessboard,  moving 
which,  God  may  win  or  lose.  Every  move  is 
arranged.  I  did  not  know  what  was  to  come 
to  pass  to-day,  but  God  was  in  this  day  before 
I  came  into  it.  Doing  what?  Choosing  the 
place  for  me,  making  arrangements,  control- 
ling everything.  If  your  life  is  under  the 
divine  government,  do  not  forget  that  every 
day  you  come  to,  God  has  been  preparing  for 
you.  Do  you  believe  it?  Is  God  sending 
you  to  some  foreign  land?  God  is  there  get- 
ting ready  for  you  to  come.  God  goes  in 
front  as  well  as  behind  me.  He  is  my  rear- 
ward, but  He  is  also  in  front,  choosing,  select- 
ing, planning,  arranging  everything  for  me. 

It  is  something  to  be  thankful  for,  then,  if 
God  is  disturbing  me  that  I  may  progress, 
and  if  He  is  all  the  way  marking  out  the  path 
before  me.  There  can  be  no  accident  to  such 
a  man.  Nothing  can  go  wrong  in  the  life 
surrendered  to  such  a  divine  government.  A 
disturbing  element,  a  progressive  element, 
141 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

and  yet,  thank  God,  a  government  that  makes 
no  experiments,  but  that  moves  along  Hues 
of  perfect  order. 

Now,  what  is  my  relation  to  this  govern- 
ment of  God.'*  I  can  put  it  in  very  few  words: 
First,  I  should  be  always  ready;  and  second, 
I  should  rnove  the  instant  the  word  comes. 
That  marks  the  line  of  wisdom.  Ready  to  be 
disturbed  if  God  disturbs;  immediate  obedi- 
ence when  He  calls. 

Now  I  do  not  think  that  any  one  can  pos- 
sibly say,  *'But  that  is  very  hard."  It  would 
be  hard  if  we  did  not  know  God,  and  if  we 
did  not  know  that  the  disturbance  is  for  pro- 
gress, and  that  the  progress  is  along  lines 
definitely  marked  and  divinely  arranged.  Oh, 
the  inexpressible  comfort,  the  absolute  rest  of 
life,  to  men  and  women  who  say: 

**If  God  disturb  me  to-morrow,  in  being 
disturbed  is  my  chief  rest,  because  I  know 
that  when  He  moves  it  is  to  higher  reaches  of 
life,  to  better  positions  beyond;  and  though 
the  ultimate  issue  of  this  present  disturbance 
may  be  far  on,  every  mile  of  the  journey  He 
has  chosen,  and  every  place  where  I  pitch  my 
tent  He  has  selected  for  me." 

That  is  the  kingdom  in  which  I  want  to 
142 


Divine  Government  of  Human  Lives. 

live;  that  is  where  I  want  to  abide  perpetu- 
ally. I  want  to  be  a  man  waiting  for  the 
disturbing  element,  responsive  to  the  progres- 
sive element,  rejoicing  in  the  methodical  ele- 
ment, by  which  God  leads  me  day  by  day  and 
hour  by  hour. 

And,  beloved,  how  may  we  mark  our  folly? 
By  doing  just  what  Israel  did.  They  were 
characterised  by  wisdom  at  first.  They  struck 
their  tents  and  moved,  but  at  last  they  came 
up  to  the  borders  of  this  land  that  God  had 
told  them  to  go  in  and  possess,  and  then  they 
began  to  doubt  the  King;  they  began  to  won- 
der whether  He  knew  His  business.  When 
they  reached  the  borders  of  the  land,  they 
said: 

''We  will  send  men  in  to  spy  out  this 
land." 

When  the  men  came  back  with  the  report 
that  there  were  giants  and  walled  cities,  those 
who  up  to  that  point  had  been  responsive  to 
the  divine  government,  said: 

'*Ah,  well,  you  see  God  did  not  under- 
stand this  when  He  sent  us  here.  We  can- 
not go  on.  He  did  not  know  that  there  were 
walled  cities;   He  had  no  idea  of  the  giants." 

Did  they  not  say  that?     They  said,  "  We 

H3 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

had  no  idea, ' '  which  is  the  same  thing.  If 
they  had  beheved  that  God  knew,  and  had 
been  moving  before  them,  choosing  the  place, 
what  would  they  have  cared  for  walled  cities 
and  giants?  Some  of  you  have  obeyed  thus 
far.  God  has  said  to  you,  ''Ye  have  tarried 
long  enough  in  this  mount."  He  has  broken 
up  your  nest  somewhere.  You  strike  your 
tent  and  start;  but  there  comes  a  moment 
when  you  say: 

''But  somebody  tells  me  that  ahead  are 
giants  and  walled  cities. ' ' 

So  there  are;  it  is  quite  true;  but  the 
giants  are  for  you  to  slay,  and  the  walled 
cities  are  for  you  to  live  in.  The  God  Who 
disturbed  you  did  it  in  order  that  you  might 
come  into  possession  of  that  very  land;  and 
if  you  live  in  His  government,  rest  assured 
that  for  every  step  of  the  way  that  lies  ahead 
He  will  move  before  you,  and  choose  the 
place,  and  equip  you  for  life  and  for  service. 

But  it  was  a  very  sad  business  for  these 
people.  They  disobeyed  God,  and  were  sent 
back.  What  then.?  They  thought  they 
would  go  and  try  by  themselves.  They 
were  defeated  and  driven  back,  and  for 
nearly  forty  years  they  had  to  stay  in  that 
144 


Divine  Government  of  Human  Lives. 

wilderness  instead  of  possessing  the  land 
straightway. 

Now,  in  conclusion,  I  want  to  ask  this  one 
pointed  question  of  my  own  heart  and  of 
yours:  Where  do  we  stand  in  relation  to  this 
government  of  God?  You  may  have  just 
heard  the  voice  saying,  *'Ye  have  dwelt  long 
enough  in  this  mountain,"  and  He  marks  for 
you  a  new  course  of  life.  It  is  as  clear  as 
the  sunlight  in  the  blue.  Wherever  there  are 
hearts  waiting  for  the  voice  of  God,  that  voice 
is  to  be  heard.  You  know  what  God  wants 
you  to  do.  Now,  what  are  you  going  to  do.^ 
I  beseech  you  for  your  own  sake,  as  well  as 
for  the  glory  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  that  you 
do  not  stop  to  count  the  cost  of  obedience, 
but  that  you  say: 

''He  bids  me  go,  and  I  go." 

That  is  the  spirit  which  has  brought  men 
into  the  places  of  heroism  and  victory. 

You  know  the  old  story  of  Luther;  when 
he  was  warned  against  going  to  Worms,  he 
said: 

''Though  every  slate  on  every  house  were 
a  devil,  I  would  go. ' ' 

God  had  marked  the  path,  and  he  was 
bound  to  go. 

H5 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

If  you  begin  to  count  the  cost,  you  are  in 
the  place  of  peril.  It  is  the  man  who  says  to 
the  King,  ''At  thy  word,  O  King,  in  the  face 
of  what  seems  to  be  a  combination  of  circum- 
stances that  must  wreck  me  completely,  I  will 
go."  You  need  have  no  fear,  for  He  goeth 
before  you  to  choose  you  out  a  place  in  which 
to  pitch  your  tent,  and  the  life  abandoned  to 
God  is  in  perfect  safety  forevermore. 

But  perhaps  you  heard  that  voice  speaking 
to  you  years  ago,  and  you  disobeyed,  and  you 
have  been  in  the  wilderness  ever  since.  You 
have  been  away  from  the  land  towards  which 
God  was  sending  you  forward  to  possess  it. 
Thank  God,  He  is  full  of  tender  compassion, 
and  graciousness,  and  all  He  asks  is  that  you 
go  back  to  the  point  of  disobedience,  and 
obey.  God's  path  led  that  way,  and  you 
turned  from  it;  go  back.  You  know  how  you 
got  off  the  definitely  marked  pathway,  and 
missed  the  place  that  God  had  chosen  for  you 
to  pitch  your  tent.  Go  back,  man,  and  go 
along  that  path. 

But  you  say:  ''That  path  is  thorny  and 
rough. ' ' 

Tramp  it;  for,  mark  you,  you  will  find 
that  whenever  you  put  your  foot  upon  a  thorn, 
146 


Divine  Government  of  Human  Lives. 

another  foot  has  been  there  first  and  taken  off 
the  sharpness;  and  whenever  you  begin  to 
tramp  a  rough  piece  of  road  in  obedience  to 
the  divine  voice,  another  by  your  side  will 
take  the  roughness  from  it,  and  you  will  sirfi- 
ply  walk  in  perfect  harmony  with  Him  Who 
is  your  perpetual  companion  in  the  way  of 
His  own  marking  out.  God  not  only  goes 
before  me  to  choose  me  a  place.  He  walks 
with  me  along  the  pathway,  and  leaning  on 
His  strength,  then  am  I  strong. 

One  word  more.  There  may  be  some  to 
whom  all  this  is  as  a  foreign  tongue.  You 
have  never  heard  the  voice  of  God,  and  say: 
''The  day  of  miracles  is  past.  I  am  never 
disturbed.  I  make  my  own  plans  and  live 
where  I  please  and  do  as  I  like.  What  do 
you  mean  by  a  disturbing  element?" 

Beloved,  you  are  living  still  among  the 
fleshpots  and  the  garlic  of  Egypt.  You  are 
still  in  slavery.  Oh,  if  men  could  but  see 
themselves!  The  man  who  does  as  he  likes 
is  the  greatest  slave.  The  man  who  never 
does  as  he  likes  is  God's  free  man.  You 
know  no  disturbing  voice?  God  never  points 
out  for  you  a  pathway  altogether  different 
from  the  one  you  had  planned?     Then,  my 

H7 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

brother,  you  are  Hving  still  in  the  land  of 
slavery,  in  the  land  of  darkness.  Back  to 
your  King!  In  His  government  alone  lies 
safety,  in  His  government  alone  is  the  place 
of  life,  and  light,  and  liberty,  and  love.  Any 
man  who  lives  outside  this  government  of  God 
is  in  the  place  of  dust  and  ashes  and  empti- 
ness.     Oh,  back  to  your  King! 

O  men,  O  women,  my  brethren,  my  sisters 
in  Christ,  those  of  you  who  have  never  yet 
submitted  to  Him,  come  under  His  control 
actually  and  positively.  Fling  away  your 
theories,  and  get  into  the  actuality  of  this 
business,  and  let  God  govern  your  life,  dis- 
turb you,  mark  for  you  your  progress,  and 
prepare  for  you  your  sphere  of  service.  He 
will  call  you  away  from  some  loved  relation- 
ship, from  some  cherished  habit,  and  will  say, 
' '  This  is  the  way. ' '  As  you  look  at  the  path- 
way, you  will  think  that  it  is  a  hard  one;  but 
as  you  begin  to  tread  it,  you  will  find  that  He 
is  with  you,  and  every  step  is  leading  you  into 
finer  air,  and  larger  life,  and  more  infinite 
possibilities. 


148 


Redeeming  the  Time, 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Redeeming  the  Time. 

Ephesians,  chapter  v.,  15  to  18,  inclusive: 
*'Look  therefore  carefully  how  ye  walk,  not 
as  unwise,  but  as  wise;  redeeming  the  time, 
because  the  days  are  evil.  Wherefore  be  ye 
not  foolish,  but  understand  what  the  will  of 
the  Lord  is.  And  be  not  drunken  with  wine, 
wherein  is  riot,  but  be  filled  with  the  Spirit. ' ' 

These  verses  form  the  setting  of  a  passage 
which  is  full  of  value  as  revealing  the  respon- 
sibility of  Christians;  *' Redeeming  the  time, 
because  the  days  are  evil." 

Instead  of  ** Redeeming  the  time,"  the 
margin  has,  ''Buying  up  the  opportunity." 
That  is  a  clearer  translation  of  the  original 
word;  and  I  intend  to  use  it  as  conveying  the 
thought  in  the  mind  of  the  apostle,  ''Buying 
up  the  opportunity,  because  the  days  are 
evil." 

"Buying  up."  The  word  so  translated 
comes  from  another  word,  which  means  "the 
market-place."  In  rural  districts  the  market 
is  often  held  upon  one  day  of  the  week,  some- 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

where  in  the  center  of  the  town,  sometimes 
under  cover,  sometimes  in  the  open;  and  to 
that  common  meeting-place  those  come  who 
have  goods  to  offer  for  sale  and  those  who 
desire  to  purchase,  and  there  they  transact 
their  business.  In  eastern  towns  the  same 
habit  obtained.  The  merchantman  came  to 
the  market-place  in  the  center  of  the  town, 
bringing  his  wares  with  him,  there  to  transact 
his  business;  and  he  watched  the  market,  and 
waited  for  a  favourable  opportunity,  either  to 
buy  or  sell,  and  when  the  opportunity  pre- 
sented itself  he  acted  with  promptitude.  He 
bought  up  his  opportunity. 

Now,  the  apostle  tells  those  who  are  the 
children  of  God  to  buy  up  the  opportunities, 
because  the  days  are  evil.  You  cannot  have 
carefully  read  the  epistles  of  Paul  without 
having  noticed  how  he  never  forgets  the  rela- 
tion that  exists  between  doctrine  and  duty. 
He  perpetually  lays  down  for  us  great  prin- 
ciples of  life,  and  unfolds  before  us  the  great 
truths  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  he 
never  does  so  in  order  that  men  and  women 
may  possess  the  knowledge  as  theorists  merely 
— he  always  does  it  in  order  that  he  may  lead 
on  to  a  practical  application  of  the  truth  he 

152 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

declares.  The  apostle  never  forgets  that  the 
wonderful  sanctifying  force  is  the  force  of 
truth.  Take  his  epistles  and  look  through 
them,  and  you  will  find  invariably  that  there 
is  a  statement  of  some  great  doctrine,  and 
then  you  come  to  the  point  in  the  epistle 
where  he  uses  his  favorite  word  "Where- 
fore, ' '  and  from  that  point  he  begins  to  apply 
his  doctrine  to  the  details  of  daily  life. 

This  epistle  to  the  Ephesians  may  well  be 
spoken  of  as  the  epistle  of  vocation.  In  it 
the  apostle  unfolds  the  truth  concerning  voca- 
tion, and  then  endeavors  to  set  their  eyes  upon 
God's  ultimate  purpose  for  them,  and  when 
he  has  done  so  through  the  first  and  second 
and  third  chapters,  you  find  that  the  fourth 
chapter  opens  thus: 

"I,  therefore,  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord, 
beseech  you  to  walk  worthily  of  the  calling. ' ' 

The  vocation  is  declared  in  the  opening 
part  of  the  epistle.  The  effect  that  the  hold- 
ing of  the  truth  of  that  vocation  would  have 
upon  daily  life  is  declared  in  the  after  part  of 
the  epistle.  He  begins  by  taking  us  to  the 
heights  of  vision;  then  he  brings  us  to  the 
every-day  level  of  life,  and  shows  us  how 
the  vision,  unfolded  before  us,  should  affect 

153  ' 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

us,  as  fathers,  and  children,  and  masters,  and 
servants. 

A  charge  has  been  made  against  certain 
ministers  during  recent  years  that  their 
preaching  has  been  "other-worldly."  I  am 
not  perfectly  sure  that  we  have  not  been  too 
much  afraid  of  that  taunt.  The  moment  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  ceases  to  be  ''other- 
worldly" she  loses  her  power  to  affect  this 
world.  It  is  only  in  proportion  as  we  have  a 
true  view  of  the  heavenly  calling  that  we  are 
able  to  touch  the  earth  upon  which  we  live, 
as  men  and  women  of  power.  It  is  only  as 
we  realise  that  everything  that  transpires  to 
us  in  the  little  while  between  our  conversion 
and  the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ,  all  the  ser- 
vice rendered  and  all  the  lessons  learned,  is 
to  prepare  us  for  the  higher  service  that  lies 
beyond,  that  we  shall  ever  be  able  to  render 
service  at  its  fullest  and  best  upon  this  earth. 
I  dwell  upon  that  in  opening  because  it  lends 
force  to  the  present  duty  as  laid  down  in  this 
verse: 

''Buying  up  the  opportunity,  because  the 
days  are  evil." 

This  first  thought  must  be  the  very  back- 
ground of  all  our  study.     Paul,  in  these  open- 

154 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

ing  chapters,  has  written  down  the  great 
truth,  that  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  will 
only  reach  its  full  sphere  of  service  when  it 
has  left  behind  it  the  temptation,  and  the  sin, 
and  all  the  various  experiences  of  these  pass- 
ing years.  Not  to-day  can  we  render  our  full 
service,  but  in  God's  great  to-morrow,  when 
(as  Paul  shows  in  this  epistle)  the  Church  of 
Christ,  the  catholic  Church,  the  Church  re- 
deemed out  of  the  earth,  gathered  into  eternal 
union  with  Christ  in  the  heavens,  has  become 
the  minister  of  the  grace  of  God  to  the  ages 
that  are  yet  unborn;  a  medium  through  which 
God  shall  unfold  in  perfect  clearness  to  prin- 
cipalities and  powers  in  the  heavenly  places 
His  own  wisdom  and  His  own  power.  We 
are  a  heavenly  people  sojourning  upon  the 
earth;  and  therefore,  through  us,  the  light  of 
the  heavenly  is  to  fall  upon  the  earthly.  The 
powers  of  the  world  to  come  are  to  touch  the 
present  age  through  the  men  and  women  who 
are  sons  and  daughters  of  the  world  to  come, 
and  who  will  only  find  the  fulfillment  of  their 
highest  vocation  when  that  eternal  day  breaks 
beyond  the  mists  and  beyond  the  shadows. 

Now,  with  that  thought  in  mind,  remem- 
bering that  we  are  a  heavenly  people  called  to 

155 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

vocation  in  the  heavens,  how  are  we  to  act 
upon  the  earth?  The  second  half  of  the 
epistle  answers  the  question.  I  choose  to 
take  from  it  this  one  word,  expressing  our 
present  duty  and  privilege:  "Look  therefore 
carefully  how  ye  walk" — note  the  connection 
with  the  opening  injunction: — ''I  beseech  you 
to  walk  worthy  of  your  vocation" — ''Look 
therefore  carefully  how  ye  walk,  not  as  un- 
wise, but  as  wise;  buying  up  the  opportunity, 
because  the  days  are  evil. ' ' 

Notice,  first  of  all,  the  reason  that  Paul 
gives  why  Christian  men  and  women  should 
buy  up  the  opportunity:  ''Because  the  days 
are  evil." 

Now,  if  we  had  come  into  Ephesus  as  it 
then  was,  and  had  told  the  leading  men  of  the 
city  that  they  had  fallen  in  their  lives  upon 
evil  days,  they  would  angrily  have  resented 
the  charge.     They  would  probably  have  said: 

"There  never  was  such  a  time  for  Ephesus 
as  this.  We  were  never  so  prosperous  as  we 
are  to-day.  We  were  never  as  wealthy  as  we 
are  to-day.  Progress  has  marked  the  past, 
and  to-day  we  are  rich  and  wealthy. ' ' 

At  that  time  there  was  a  very  peculiar 
combination    in    Ephesus.     Commerce    and 

•56 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

religion  had  been  united — that  is,  of  course, 
the  rehgion  of  Ephesus.  The  great  temple 
of  their  worship  was  also  the  banking-house  of 
the  merchants,  and  as  the  merchants  poured 
their  wealth  into  the  temple  for  sate  custody, 
that  became  an  act  of  worship.  Men  were 
perfectly  satisfied  with  themselves  in  Ephesus, 
and  thought  it  was  a  day  of  prosperity  and  a 
day  over  which  they  might  rejoice;  but  Paul 
was  writing,  not  to  the  citizens  of  Ephesus, 
not  to  the  rank  and  file  of  the  people  who 
dwelt  there,  but  to  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ,  to  the  children  of  God,  to  the  men 
and  women  of  heavenly  vocation;  and  writ- 
ing to  them,  he  said: 

*'The  days  are  evil." 

So  they  were.  They  were  evil  to  the  men 
and  women  who  had  turned  their  backs  toward 
idols,  to  serve  the  living  God.  The  prosper- 
ity of  Ephesus  was  the  adversity  of  the  church. 
That  in  which  the  men  of  Ephesus  made  their 
boast  rendered  the  days  evil  to  the  called- 
out,  separated,  sanctified  men  and  women 
whom  God  was  preparing  for  the  high  voca- 
tion that  lay  beyond,  in  the  heavens. 

The  apostle  says  to  these  people,  "You 
are  to  buy  up  the  opportunities. ' '     This  great 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

message  comes  to  us.  Our  calling  is  a 
heavenly  calling.  The  life  of  Christ,  be- 
stowed in  conversion  and  coming  in  in  all 
its  fullness  in  the  moment  when  we  fully  sur- 
rendered to  Him,  subduing  us  unto  Himself, 
is  preparing  us  for  the  high  calling  that  lies 
beyond.  For  the  present  moment  the  word 
to  us  is,  that  we  are  to  buy  up  the  opportuni- 
ties, and  just  as  surely  as  the  apostle  said  to 
these  people  of  Ephesus,  the  days  are  evil,  so 
also  for  us  the  days  are  evil. 

Now,  in  what  sense  are  the  days  in  which 
we  live  evil  days?  The  world  is  perfectly 
satisfied.  We  are  constantly  being  told  there 
never  was  such  an  age  as  this  an  age  of  pro- 
gress, an  age  of  advancement,  an  age  of  en- 
lightenment. There  was  a  danger  of  some 
men  dying  of  pride  before  the  last  century 
ended,  because  it  had  been  such  a  wonderful 
century.  The  dawn  of  the  new  century  has 
increased  rather  than  diminished  that  pride. 
Our  cities  have  marks  of  progress  on  every 
hand.  Our  commerce  is  more  wonderful 
than  it  ever  was,  and  throughout  the  land  you 
hear  the  voices  of  men  and  women  telling  you 
that  these  are  the  best  days,  days  full  of  hope 
characterised  by  progress,  days  in  which  the 

'58 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

race  may  be  perfectly  proud  of  themselves; 
and  yet  in  these  day  the  message  comes  to 
us,  '*Evil  days!" 

Now  analyse  the  thought  for  a  moment  or 
two.  The  majority  of  the  men  with  whom 
you  come  into  contact  in  ordinary  business 
life  are  not  godly,  but  ungodly.  You  are 
bound  to  mix  with  them,  as  matters  stand  in 
our  cities  and  in  our  daily  life  to-day.  Please 
do  not  misunderstand  me.  I  do  not  say  that 
these  men  are  all  disreputable,  or  profligate, 
or  fallen.  Never  forget  that  a  vast  amount 
of  the  ungodliness  of  this  age,  as  of  every 
other,  is  cultured  and  refined;  but  it  is  none 
the  less  ungodliness.  You  can  have  an  un- 
godliness which  is  educated,  and  cultured, 
and  refined,  and  accomplished,  but  it  is  un- 
godliness— and  I  say  the  majority  of  the 
people  with  whom  you  come  in  daily  contact 
are  ungodly  people.  The  days  are  evil  days, 
then,  in  that  sense,  for  the  development  of 
Christian  character. 

Take  the  activities  of  your  own  life  for  a 
single  moment  in  this  age  when  we  have  got 
away  from  simplicity,  when  we  are  living  a 
terribly  complex  life.  Did  you  ever  try  how 
little  you  could  live  on  for  one  single  week  in 

^59 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

your  life?  Did  you  ever  discover  how  you  are 
almost  compelled  by  the  very  character  of  the 
age  in  which  you  live  to  give  hours'  thought 
and  attention  every  day  to  an  enormous  num- 
ber of  things  which  you  could  very  well  do 
without,  material  things  all  of  them,  with  no 
touch  of  spirit  in  them?  What  shall  we  eat? 
what  shall  we  drink?  wherewithal  shall  we  be 
clothed?  These  are  the  questions  that  we  are 
bound  to  face  to-day,  in  a  measure  in  which 
our  forefathers  did  not  have  to  face  them. 
All  this  is  far  from  being  helpful  to  spiritual- 
ity.    These  are  evil  days. 

Then  we  are  told  that  this  is  the  age  of 
progress.  It  is  the  age  of  rush,  of  move- 
ment, of  effort.  The  old  sacred  art  of  con- 
templation and  meditation  is  almost  dead.  It 
is  the  age  when  men  and  women  are  trying  to 
live,  even  within  the  church,  by  dissipating 
and  exciting  forms  of  so-called  religious  ser- 
vices. The  old  solemn  hours  of  quiet  loneli- 
ness with  God,  that  made  the  saints  of  the 
past,  are  almost  unknown.  We  are  carried 
up  and  borne  forward  before  we  know  it, 
upon  the  rush  that  characterises  the  times. 
Oh,  when  men  and  women  come  to  me,  as 
they  do  sometimes,  and  tell  me,  **What  we 
1 60 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

need  in  the  Church  is  just  to  catch  the  spirit 
of  the  age  and  keep  level  with  it,"  I  say: 

''In  God's  name,  no!  What  we  need  is 
to  be  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  that  will 
send  us  against  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and 
never  along  with  it. " 

All  the  rush  and  restlessness  of  the  age 
that  have  crept  into  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  mark  these  days  as  evil  days. 

The  general  atmosphere  in  which  we  are 
surrounded  is  against  the  government  of  God. 
Do  not  let  us  deceive  ourselves.  Do  not  let 
us  have  meetings  and  sing  the  praises  of  what 
we  have  done  and  where  we  have  reached  to. 
I  tell  you  that  if  Jesus  of  Nazareth  came  back 
to  London  and  preached  the  Gospel  He 
preached  in  Jerusalem,  they  would  crucify 
Him  quicker  than  they  did  in  Jerusalem.  If 
He  came  again  with  the  same  words,  the 
same  teaching,  the  same  actual  statements  of 
divine  will  and  government,  He  would  find  no 
room  for  Himself  in  the  very  cities  that  bear 
the  name  of  Christian  to-day.  I  repeat  that 
the  very  atmosphere  in  which  we  live  is  against 
the  government  of  God;  and  the  most  terrible 
thing  is  this,  that  while  men  are  against  the 
government  of  God,  they  are  praying,  ''Thy 
i6i 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

kingdom  come;  Thy  will  be  done."  The 
most  terrible  blasphemy  of  the  age  is  not  the 
blasphemy  of  the  slums,  but  the  blasphemy  of 
the  temple,  and  the  church,  and  the  place  of 
worship,  where  men  pray  these  prayers  and 
then  go  out  to  deny  every  principle  of  divine 
government  in  their  lives.  And  Christian 
men  and  women  are  living  in  the  midst  of  all 
this,  and  the  message  that  came  to  men  at  the 
church  at  Ephesus  is  the  message  that  comes 
to  us,  ''Buy  up  the  opportunities,  because  the 
days  are  evil." 

Now,  do  you  see  what  the  apostle  says.-* 
He  says  that  the  fact  that  these  are  evil  days, 
is  one  which  positively  creates  our  opportuni- 
ties. All  these  contrary  facts  are  to  be 
treated  as  opportunities  for  prosecuting  the 
commerce  of  God.  God  calls  you,  God  calls 
me,  God  calls  every  child  of  His,  to  be  His 
representative  in  the  world,  taking  hold  of  the 
things  that  seem  to  be  against  the  develop- 
ment of  spiritual  character  and  turning  them 
into  opportunities  for  prosecuting  His  work 
upon  the  earth.  And  when  we  have  said  all 
we  have  said  concerning  the  days,  we  have 
simply  laid  down  the  foundation  upon  which 
we  may  build  for  God.  We  have  simply 
162 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

stated  the  opportunities  which  throng  upon 
every  side  for  doing  His  business  and  buy- 
ing up  the  opportunities  for  Him. 

Take  any  of  those  I  have  spoken  of.  Do 
I  say  that  the  majority  of  the  men  that  you 
are  surrounded  by  every  day  are  ungodly 
men.?  Every  ungodly  man  that  you  do  busi- 
ness with  is  an  opportunity  that  you  may  buy 
up  for  God,  if  you  will;  an  opportunity  for 
the  display  of  your  godliness  upon  his  ungod- 
liness. 

But  you  ask:  "How  are  we  to  do  it?  We 
have  no  time  to  be  talking  to  these  people 
about  religion. ' ' 

I  won't  say  anything  about  that.  I  per- 
sonally believe  that  the  gift  of  personal  dealing 
with  men  and  women  is  a  great  gift  earnestly 
to  be  coveted;  but  apart  from  the  actual  defi- 
nite saying  of  words,  for  which  I  am  not 
pleading  for  the  moment,  if  you  are  a  truly 
godly  man,  your  godliness  will  tell  upon  un- 
godliness without  your  speaking  a  single 
word.  I  am  not  saying  that  business  men 
should  always  put  tracts  into  their  letters;  I  do 
not  know  that  it  would  be  wise.  I  am  asking 
that  the  business  man  should  remember: 

"I  belong  to  the  heavens,  and  when  I 
163 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

touch  the  earth  I  must  touch  it  with  the 
equity  of  the  heavens.  When  I  sell  goods  I 
must  bring  into  my  transaction  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  heavens.  If  I  sell  a  certain  meas- 
ure over  the  counter,  I  must  remember  that 
the  God  of  the  heavens  to  which  I  am  going 
for  higher  service  hates  an  iniquitous  meas- 
ure and  an  unjust  scale;  and  into  every 
transaction  of  my  business  I  am  to  bring  the 
principles  that  make  the  foundation  of  the 
heaven  of  God.  I  must  bring  into  all  those 
transactions  the  principles  of  righteousness 
upon  which  God  is  building  His  city  and  ac- 
complishing His  work.  I  am  to  make  a 
name  for  Jesus  Christ  in  my  business.  I  am 
so  to  transact  my  business  amid  ungodly  men 
that  they  shall  say,  'You  can  trust  that  man 
because  he  is  a  Christian. '  ' ' 

There  will  be  a  great  revolution  before 
that  day  comes.  People  do  not  say  that  now. 
alas!  And  we — because  we  have  labelled 
men  Christians  who  are  not  Christians,  be- 
cause we  have  said  these  men  are  God's  own 
children  who  are  not  His  children,  because 
we  have  a  false  label  on  the  nation,  and  a 
false  label  on  men,  and  a  false  label  every- 
where— we  are  causing  the  very  name  of 
164 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

Christ  to  be  blasphemed.  What  we  need  is, 
that  the  true  children  of  God,  the  members  of 
the  Church  with  the  light  of  the  heavenly  call- 
ing upon  them,  should  take  hold  of  ungodly 
men,  and  should  look  upon  them  as  an  oppor- 
tunity for  influencing  them  by  the  godliness  of 
their  own  lives. 

So  with  the  activities  of  Hfe.  Jesus  Christ 
was  no  ascetic.  No  Christian  man  has  any 
right  to  attempt  to  create  saintliness  of  char- 
acter by  hiding  himself  from  the  activities  of 
every-day  life.  No.  I  must  live  in  my 
home,  but  that  home  must  have  upon  it  the 
stamp  of  the  heavens.  I  must  mix  among 
my  friends,  but  my  contact  with  my  friends  is 
to  be  that  which  will  draw  them  towards  God. 
I  very  well  remember  when  I  was  married, 
my  father  came  into  my  home.  He  was  a 
Puritan,  and  I  used  to  think  that  it  was  hard 
lines  that  he  was;  but  to-day  I  thank  God  for 
it.  He  came  into  my  home  soon  after  I  was 
married,  and  looked  around.  We  showed 
him  into  every  room,  and  then,  in  his  own 
peculiar  way,  he  said  to  me: 

"Yes,  it  is  very  nice;  but  nobody  will 
know  walking  through  here  whether  you  be- 
long to  God  or  the  devil.'* 

165 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

I  went  through  and  looked  at  the  rooms 
again,  and  I  thought,  *'He  is  quite  right"; 
and  we  made  up  our  minds  straightway  that 
there  should  be  no  room  in  our  house  hence- 
forward that  had  not  some  message — in  pic- 
ture, or  text,  or  book — for  every  comer,  which 
should  tell  them  that  we,  at  any  rate,  would 
serve  the  King. 

It  is  our  privilege  to  take  the  home  in 
which  we  live,  all  the  recreations  which  we 
have,  and  turn  them  into  opportunities  for 
manifesting  godliness.  We  should  take  all 
those  things  and  let  the  light  of  the  heavenly 
fall  upon  them;  we  should  go  through  life 
showing  how  all  the  things  of  the  earth  may 
shine  in  new  beauty  as  the  glory  of  the  heaven 
falls  upon  them.  Everything  in  life  is  to  be 
an  opportunity  for  prosecuting  the  commerce 
of  God. 

The  unrest  of  the  present  age  is  a  glorious 
opportunity  for  manifesting  the  quietness  and 
the  calmness  of  the  secret  place  of  the  Most 
High.  Oh,  for  quiet  men  and  women,  men 
and  women  that  know  how  to  be  at  peace  in 
the  midst  of  the  strife!  We  know  a  few. 
That  man  who,  whenever  he  walks  into  the 
committee  meeting,  brings  heaven's  calm  as 
1 66 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

he  comes.  His  words  are  few,  but  his  pres- 
ence tells.  As  he  comes  you  feel  that  you 
are  coming  into  contact  with  one  who,  amid 
the  rush,  and  the  bustle,  and  the  hurry  of  a 
godless  age,  dwells  in  the  secret  place  of  the 
Most  High,  and  abides  under  the  shadow  of 
the  Almighty.  A  blessed  thing  to  have  men 
and  women  who  have  learned  the  secret  of 
quietness,  and  so  buy  up  the  rush  of  the  age 
and  turn  it  into  account  for  a  manifestation  of 
the  peace  and  the  quietness  of  God! 

But  if  I  am  to  take  all  life  in  this  way,  if  I 
am  to  seize  these  opportunities  as  they  go  and 
come,  and  turn  them  into  account  for  God, 
there  are  certain  facts  that  I  must  bear  in 
mind:  the  responsibility  that  lies  upon  me 
that  I  see  the  opportunity  in  the  first  place, 
and  seeing  the  opportunity,  that  I  should  be 
willing  to  make  some  sacrifice  in  order  to 
possess  it;  and  that  if  I  am  to  see  an  oppor- 
tunity and  make  a  sacrifice  in  order  to  possess 
it,  I  must  maintain  perpetually  a  right  atti- 
tude before  God,  living  forevermore  in  the 
power  of  the  heavenly  calling,  and  allowing 
Him  to  have  His  way  with  me  and  do  His 
own  work  through  me.  Now  there  are  just 
three  laws  revealed  in  the  surrounding  verses 
167 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

which  condition  the  prosecution  of  this  com- 
merce of  the  heavens.  Let  me  very  briefly 
point  them  out  to  you. 

I.  The  first  is  in  the  fifteenth  verse. 
Men  and  women  who  are  going  to  do  God's 
work,  ''Look  therefore  carefully  how  ye 
walk."  ''Walk  circumspectly,"  the  old  ver- 
sion has  it.     Look  carefully  how  ye  walk. 

My  dear  brother,  my  dear  sister,  you  can- 
not do  God's  work  in  the  world,  buying  up 
opportunities  for  Him,  transacting  His  com- 
merce, if  you  are  careless  and  indifferent 
about  it.  Look  therefore  carefully  how  ye 
walk.  I  know  men  and  women  who  are  very 
careful  when  they  are  at  home  and  awfully 
careless  when  they  get  away  from  home.  I 
know  other  men  and  women  who  seem  to  im- 
agine that  they  can  live  the  Christian  life  and 
do  God's  work  without  carefulness  in  the 
small  details  of  every-day  life.  If  I  am  to 
translate  my  life  into  service  for  God,  not 
merely  in  the  deeds  done  in  connection  with 
the  church,  but  in  all  hours,  I  shall  only  do 
it  as  I  live  carefully  day  by  day. 

That  word  "circumspectly,"  what  does  it 
mean?  Let  me  give  an  illustration,  which  I 
believe  originated  with  Mr.  D.  L.  Moody, 
1 68 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

which  is  very  quaint  and  forceful  of  what  it  is 
to  walk  circumspectly: 

You  have  sometimes  seen  the  top  of  a  wall 
covered  with  mortar,  and  in  the  mortar  pieces 
of  glass  are  stuck  all  the  way  along,  so  as  to 
prevent  boys  from  climbing  and  going  along. 
You  have  also  seen  a  cat  walk  along  the  top 
of  that  wall.  That  was  walking  ''circum- 
spectly." How  it  picked  its  way!  With 
what  carefulness  it  put  down  the  foot  every 
time.  It  made  progress  by  walking  very 
carefully,  and  looking  for  each  place  where 
the  foot  was  to  be  put  among  those  pieces  of 
glass. 

You  and  I  have  to  walk  like  that,  if  we 
are  going  to  do  anything  for  God  in  the  world. 
You  can't  go  through  a  single  day  carelessly 
and  let  things  go  as  they  will.  Every  step 
must  be  watched.  Every  moment  must  be 
held  as  sacred  for  God,  and  we  are  ever  to 
live  in  the  power  of  the  thought  that  we  may 
miss  an  opportunity.  We  must  take  every 
moment  as  an  opportunity  that  needs  watch- 
ing and  buying  up  carefully.  We  must  walk 
circumspectly. 

2.  Then  the  second  law  of  this  commerce 
of  God  is  to  be  found  in  the  seventeenth  verse: 
169 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

"Wherefore  be  ye  not  fooHsh,  but  understand 
what  the  will  of  the  Lord  is. ' '  That  is  to 
say,  if  I  am  to  do  this  business  of  God  as  a 
Christian  man,  I  am  not  only  to  be  careful 
about  it,  but  I  must  have  keenness,  shrewd- 
ness. I  must  know  the  will  of  God.  I  must 
form  the  habit  of  discovering  the  will  of  God. 

You  remember  that  wonderful  word  about 
the  Messiah  uttered  by  Isaiah  long  before  He 
came:  '*He  shall  be  quick  of  understanding 
in  the  fear  of  the  Lord. ' '  One  Bible  student 
says  this  might  be  rendered,  "He  shall  be 
keen  of  scent  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord" — dis- 
covering the  will  of  God  quickly  by  a  kind  of 
intuition. 

You  only  discover  the  will  of  God  as  you 
obey  it  the  moment  you  do  discover  it.  It  is 
in  proportion  as  I  walk  carefully,  obeying  the 
will  as  it  is  unfolded,  that  I  become  quick  to 
discover  the  will.  We  are  not  to  foresee;  we 
are  to  understand  the  will  of  God.  We  are 
to  be  a  people  shrewd,  keen,  having  in  our 
Christian  life — having  in  our  prosecution  of 
this  work  of  God — a  spiritual  acumen  which 
is  as  necessary  as  business  acumen  to  the  man 
that  is  going  to  make  his  fortune  in  business. 

3.  And  then  there  is  another  thing.  I 
170 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

must  not  only  be  careful,  sl^rewd,  and  keen, 
understanding  the  will  of  the  Lord;  but  I 
must  have  capital,  or  I  never  can  do  God's 
work  in  the  world.  I  cannot  be  a  merchant- 
man for  heaven  unless  I  have  heaven's  capital, 
and  here  it  is  in  the  eighteenth  verse: 

*'Be  not  drunken  with  wine,  ....  but 
be  filled  with  the  Spirit." 

When  a  man  is  filled  with  the  Spirit,  he 
has  the  capital  of  God,  to  do  the  work  of  God. 
Then  all  that  I  have  spoken  of  will  become 
easy  and  natural.  It  will  become — I  was 
going  to  say  second  nature;  I  will  say  some- 
thing better — it  will  become  first  nature.  It 
will  be  perfectly  natural  to  influence  men 
toward  God.  This  great  subject  of  influence, 
we  have  heard  about  it  since  we  have  been 
children,  but  we  have  hardly  begun  to  under- 
stand or  tell  it.  We  have  never  seemed  yet 
to  grasp  this  truth,  that  the  influence  a  man 
exerts  is  the  influence  of  what  he  actually  is 
in  himself.  You  talk  about  keeping  up  ap- 
pearances. You  talk  about  living  straight 
before  men.  You  say,  ''Well,  I  wouldn't 
like  to  do  this,  that,  or  the  other  before  men, 
because  I  must  keep  up  an  appearance  or  I 
will  lead  them  wrong."     It  doesn't  matter. 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

Do  what  you  are;  because  whether  you  do  or 
not,  you  will  influence  men  by  what  you  are. 
Influence  is  altogether  too  subtle  to  be 
changed  by  any  outward  activities.  If  a  man 
is  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God  he  is  spiritual, 
and  his  influence  will  be  spiritual. 

Some  years  ago  I  was  at  work  in  Hull, 
England.  God  was  giving  us  gracious  sea- 
sons of  refreshing,  and  a  man  came  to  me  one 
night  and  said: 

*'Do  you  know,  the  strangest  thing  has 
happened  to  me!" 

Said  I:  ''What  has  happened?" 
He  said:  ''I  am  a  cabinet-maker,  and  I 
work  at  a  bench,  and  another  man  works  by 
my  side.  He  has  worked  by  my  side  for  five 
years.  I  thought  I  would  like  to  get  him  to 
come  to  some  of  these  meetings,  and  this 
morning  I  summoned  up  my  courage  and  said 
to  him,  'Charlie,  I  want  you  to  come  along 
to-night  to  some  meetings  we  are  having 
down  in  Wilberforce  Hall.'  He  looked  at 
me  and  said,  'You  don't  mean  to  say  you  are 
a  Christian.?'  and  I  answered,  'Yes,  I  am.' 
'Well,'  he  said,  'so  am  I.'  " 

This  man  said  to  me:   "Wasn't  it  funny?" 
"Funny!"    I    said,    "no.     Is   he    here? 
172 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

for  if  so,  both  you  and  he  want  to  get  down 
here  and  start.  You  never  have  been  born 
again. ' ' 

It  is  an  absolute  impossibihty  for  two  men 
born  again  of  the  Spirit,  filled  with  the  Spirit, 
to  work  side  by  side  for  five  years,  and  neither 
one  or  the  other  find  it  out.  If  one  man  is  a 
Christian  and  the  other  isn't,  the  man  that 
isn't  will  soon  see  the  difference  in  the  work 
the  Christian  man  does.  Christian  men  do 
pure,  strong  work,  and  the  best  work  in  the 
world. 

''But, "  you  say,  '*I  have  had  a  man  work- 
ing for  me  who  doesn't;  and  he  is  a  Chris- 
tian." 

No,  he  isn't!  If  a  man  is  filled  with  the 
Spirit  of  God,  it  will  be  manifest  in  every 
action  of  his  life;  and  if  you  get  this  capital 
behind  you,  it  won't  be  hard  work  to  infiuence 
men  for  Christ;  it  will  be  the  necessity  of 
your  life.  The  passion  of  your  soul  will  be 
to  win  another  soul  for  Christ,  to  weave 
another  garland  wherewith  to  deck  His  brow, 
to  plant  another  gem  in  His  diadem;  and  your 
life  will  be  doing  it  as  well  as  your  words. 
You  must  have  the  capital  of  God  to  prose- 
cute the  commerce  of  God. 

173 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

And  again,  that  is  true  about  all  the  activi- 
ties of  life.  People  often  come  and  ask  me 
questions  about  amusements: 

' '  Ought  we  to  do  this,  that,  and  the  other?" 
Well,  you  must  only  take  up  amusements 
in  which  it  is  possible  for  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
reveal  Jesus  Christ. 

You  say:  ''That  is  very  narrow." 
No,  it  isn't;  it  is  veiy  broad.  That  for 
me  settles  a  great  many  questions  of  amuse- 
ments. I  know  young  people  who  make 
tennis  an  instrument  of  the  devil.  If  a  man 
gives  himself  wholly  up  to  it,  so  as  to  neglect 
other  things,  and  make  other  people  uncom- 
fortable in  the  world,  that  isn't  Christianity. 
But  that,  and  kindred  kinds  of  amusement 
can  be  had  as  pure  recreation,  and  so  played 
that  the  very  gentleness  and  beauty  of  Jesus 
Christ  shall  be  manifested  in  the  playing. 
Every  activity  of  life,  which  is  in  itself  right 
and  pure,  will  shine  with  glory  the  moment 
you  become  a  Spirit-filled  soul ;  and  instead  of 
being  narrow  and  shut  up  within  confined 
walls,  you  will  be  able  to  see  that  He  has  set 
your  feet  in  a  large  room,  He  has  unlocked 
for  you  all  the  avenues  of  life.  Filled  with 
the  Spirit,  you  will  be  able  to  manifest  the 

174 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

beauty  and  the  glory  of  the  will  of  God,  as 
against  all  the  rebellion  of  the  age  in  which 
we  live. 

And  now  I  want  to  press  a  question  on 
you  that  you  will  answer  to  yourself:  How 
much  are  you  worth? 

You  know  how  men  usually  answer  that 
question.      I  very  well  remember  in  England 
how  we  were  impressed  during  one  month 
some  years  ago  by  the  death  of  two  men,  one 
on  this  side  of  the  water,  and  one  on  that. 
The  man  over  here  was  a  millionaire,  and  the 
other  was  Cardinal  Manning.     As  I  traveled 
in  a  train  just  about  the  time  these  two  died, 
I  was  impressed  by  hearing  several  commer- 
cial men  talking,  and  they  asked: 
"Well,  how  much  was  he  worth?" 
*'0h, "  said  one,  ''so  many  millions." 
''And  how  much  was  he  worth?"  said  they 
of  the  other. 

"Well, he  died  worth  five  hundred  dollars." 
Do  you    see?     We    measure   things   this 
way:    we    say   a   man   is   worth    so    much. 
Don't  you  see  the  horror  of  it  now? 

What  are  you  worth?  I  don't  ask  to  know 
anything  about  your  balance  at  the  bank. 
What  are  you  worth?     What  do  you  possess? 

175 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

You  say:  *'I  possess  so  much.  I  possess 
my  home. ' ' 

No,  no,  you  don't!  What  do  you  pos- 
sess.? You  only  possess  the  things  you  have 
bought  for  the  kingdom  of  God.  You  are 
rich  according  to  the  number  of  the  hours 
which  you  have  bought  up.  The  time  re- 
deemed is  wealth.  Every  time  you  buy  up 
an  opportunity  for  Him,  every  time  your  life 
tells  upon  an  ungodly  man,  every  time  your 
dealings  with  God  shine  out  in  some  of  the 
activities  of  your  life,  every  time  by  sacrifice 
you  influence  a  soul  towards  God,  in  that 
moment  buying  up  an  opportunity,  you  invest 
an  hour  in  God,  and  with  those  hours  God  is 
making  your  fortune.  You  are  not  worth  the 
things  you  possess  upon  the  earth.  They 
fade  and  vanish.  They  are  of  the  earth, 
earthy.  You  are  only  worth  the  treasure 
that  you  have  laid  at  His  gates,  the  influ- 
ence which  you  have  purchased  by  sacrifice 
for  Him.  These  are  the  things  which  mark 
your  value  and  your  work,  and  make  your 
fortune. 

Oh,  what  a  day  it  will  be  when  God  gives 
us  back  these  fortunes!  How  surprised  some 
will  be  when  the  Master  comes  and  says: 
176 


Redeeming  the  Time. 

"You  bought  up  an  opportunity  one  day  for 
me.  You  met  a  soul  that  was  thirsty  on  the 
dusty  highway  of  Hfe,  and  it  was  an  opportu- 
nity for  you  to  show  that  soul  what  I  would 
have  done  if  I  had  been  there,  and  you  gave 
that  soul  a  cup  of  water.  Now  here  is  the 
result  of  it,"  and  what  it  will  be,  who  can 
tell?  God  will  meet  you  some  day,  my 
brother,  and  He  will  say:  ''Do  you  remem- 
ber that  day  when  in  your  store  you  might 
have  made  ten  thousand  dollars  at  a  stroke, 
and  you  didn't  because  there  was  a  trick  and 
a  twist  behind  it,  and  you  said:  'No,  I  will 
be  that  much  poorer  for  the  kingdom  of  heav- 
en's sake.?' "  Godwin  say:  "That  was  your 
investment.  See,  this  is  the  result,"  and  He 
will  show  you  how  you  helped  that  day  to 
bring  in  righteousness,  and  to  move  with  God 
towards  the  consummation  of  the  purposes  of 
His  heart  of  love. 

That  is  how  men  are  making  fortunes. 
Aren't  you  going  in  for  this  sort  of  business? 
Aren't  you  going  to  take  life  anew  from  this 
time  and  say,  "  I  am  going  to  make  this  life 
a  place  in  which  I  prosecute  heaven's  com- 
merce. I  will  take  the  opportunities  as  they 
come,  and  buy  them  up  for  God.  I  will  take 
177 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

my  home;  it  is  an  opportunity  which  I  will 
purchase  for  the  exhibition  of  all  the  beauties 
of  the  Christlike  character  and  all  the  pur- 
poses of  the  divine  heart.  Life  to  me  hence- 
forth shall  be  an  opportunity  for  doing  God's 
business  and  laying  up  treasure  in  heaven.'* 

Is  that  your  determination.''  Then  you 
must  go  to  the  King  and  say,  **0  King,  I 
want  to  be  Thy  merchantman  on  earth.  Give 
me  the  capital  I  need.  Give  me  the  fiUing  of 
Thy  Holy  Spirit.  Then  shall  all  my  service 
be  a  delight,  and  I  shall  be  able  to  take  all 
hours,  and  all  activities,  and  everything  that 
comes  to  me,  and  transmute  it  from  the  dross 
of  earth  into  the  gold  of  heaven. ' ' 

May  God  help  us  every  one  to  be  His 
merchantmen! 


178 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Gathering  or  Scattering. 

We  are  living  in  a  day  that  is  known  as 
the  day  of  toleration.  We  have  ceased  very 
largely  to  desire  to  force  our  own  particular 
views  upon  other  people  save  by  the  methods 
of  persuasion.  Torture  and  excommunica- 
tion are  things  of  the  past.  And  I  believe 
that  there  cannot  be  too  much  toleration.  No 
man  has  any  right  to  usurp  the  judgment 
throne  of  Jesus  Christ  and  pass  sentence  upon 
his  fellow-men.  But  while  this  is  perfectly 
true,  we  cannot  forget  that  the  very  freedom 
of  the  atmosphere  in  which  we  live  has  pro- 
duced in  individual  life  something  of  indiffer- 
ence to  the  truth  of  God.  Much  as  we 
deprecate  any  attempt  by  persecution  to  com- 
pel belief,  we  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact 
that  the  old  days  of  persecution  were  also  the 
days  of  purity  in  the  Church  of  Christ.  It  is 
a  very  remarkable  thing  that  the  Church  of 
Christ  persecuted  has  been  the  Church  of 
Christ  pure.  The  Church  of  Christ  patron- 
ised has  always  become  the  Church  of  Christ 
i8i 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

impure.  The  very  saddest  day  in  Church 
history  was  the  day  that  Constantine  espoused 
the  cause  of  Christianity.  When  an  earthly 
emperor  and  empire  took  upon  them  to 
patronise  the  Nazarene,  to  say  that  the  reli- 
gion of  the  Nazarene  should  have  a  posi- 
tion under  the  wing  of  the  state,  that  day 
there  passed  into  Christendom  the  most 
damning  and  blighting  influence  that  has  ever 
touched  it.  Men  and  women,  when  they  had 
to  face  death  for  the  things  that  they  held, 
were  pure.  Men  and  women  who  were  not 
prepared  to  do  this  kept  outside  the  churches 
of  Jesus  Christ.  All  that  has  passed  away. 
No  one  will  persecute  you  now  for  being  a 
Christian.  There  is  a  sense,  I  know,  in 
which  ''they  that  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus 
shall  suffer  persecution";  but  the  old  days  of 
fiery  tests  of  faith  have  passed  away,  and 
with  their  passing,  we  have  entered  into  a 
region  of  peril  and  danger.  The  peril  and 
danger  that  threatens  us  to-day  is  that  of  in- 
difference. 

Now,  if  this  be  true — and  you  know  it  is — 

it  is  well  for  us  sometimes  to  come  into  the 

presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  learn  that 

while  no  man  has  any  right  to  pronounce  sen- 

182 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

tence  upon  us,  yet  Christ  has.  And  not  only 
has  He  the  right  to  do  that,  but  in  unmistak- 
able language  in  His  teaching  He  has  made  a 
clean  line  of  demarkation  between  man  and 
man,  setting  certain  people  upon  one  side  and 
certain  upon  the  other.  No  verse  that  I  know 
of  in  the  whole  realm  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  more  searching  than  the  thirtieth 
verse  of  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Matthew: 

*'He  that  is  not  with  Me  is  against  Me; 
and  he  that  gathereth  not  with  Me  scattereth. ' ' 

One  can  imagine  that  it  fell  from  the  lips 
of  Jesus  quietly  and  calmly,  but  it  is  a  veri- 
table throne  of  judgment,  dividing  men  swiftly 
and  surely  into  two  opposite  camps,  leaving 
no  via  media,  no  middle  way,  no  neutral 
ground.  As  the  Master  uttered  these  words 
in  the  old  days,  and  by  uttering  them  divided 
the  crowd  in  front  of  Him,  so  from  that  time 
until  now,  through  every  successive  century, 
amongst  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  this 
verse  has  come  as  the  line  of  divine  cleavage, 
separating  men  to  the  right  and  to  the  left. 

Here  in  this  gathering  we  are  made  up  of 
a  great  many  differently  circumstanced  per- 
sons, but  as  God  looks  upon  us  He  moves  us 
to  the  right  and  to  the  left.     He  ranks  us 

183 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

amid  the  gatherers  or  the  scatterers.  No  one 
takes  a  middle  position. 

A  great  and  terrible  mistake  we  are  con- 
stantly making  to-day  is  that  of  comparing  our- 
selves with  ourselves.  We  test  the  experience 
of  to-day  by  the  experience  of  yesterday. 
We  allow  ourselves  to  be  puffed  up  because 
we  think  our  conduct  is  a  little  superior  to 
every  one  else's.  Now,  let  us  be  done  with 
all  this  comparison  of  self  with  self  and  man 
with  man.  Let  us  come  to  the  judgment-seat 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  see  what  He  means,  and 
where  we  stand  in  the  light  of  it. 

In  order  that  we  may  rightly  do  that,  we 
must  first  of  all  understand  what  our  Lord 
meant  when  He  said,  ''He  that  is  not  with 
Me  is  against  Me;  and  he  that  gathereth  not 
with  Me  scattereth."  I  shall,  therefore, 
consider  briefly  in  the  first  place  the  claim 
that  Jesus  Christ  makes  for  Himself.  Infer- 
entially,  and  yet  with  perfect  clearness.  He 
sets  up  on  His  own  behalf  a  certain  very 
definite  claim.  In  the  second  place,  we  shall 
notice  how  that  claim  defines  our  position. 

What  is  the  claim  that  the  Master  sets  up 
for  Himself.-*  Listen:  ''He  that  is  not  with 
Me  is  against  Me. ' '  So  far  we  have  no  claim 
1 84 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

made;  but  in  order  that  the  statement  may  be 
understood  He  goes  on  to  explain  it  by  say- 
ing: ''He  that  gathereth  not  with  Me  scatter- 
eth  abroad."  His  claim  is  that  He  is  the 
Gatherer.  His  mission  to  the  world  was  to 
gather  together. 

Having  set  up  this  claim  for  Himself,  He 
proceeds  to  say  to  the  men  and  women  around 
Him,  that  every  human  being  is  exercising 
through  life  the  great  force  that  gathers  to- 
gether with  Christ,  or  that  other  force,  which 
is  of  hell,  that  scatters  abroad  against  Christ. 
Christ  claims  for  Himself  that  He  is  God's 
Gatherer.  Christ  says  that  every  man  is 
either  with  or  against  Him,  gathering  or  scat- 
tering. 

Let  us  take  these  two  things  and  look  at 
them  a  little  more  closely,  patiently,  and 
prayerfully,  in  order  that  we  may  understand 
them.  What  does  the  Master  mean  when 
He  says  ''gathereth  with  Me"?  In  the  Gos- 
pel of  John,  the  eleventh  chapter,  forty-ninth 
and  following  verses,  occurs  a  passage  throw- 
ing light  on  the  subject:  "A  certain  one  of 
them,  Caiaphas,  being  high  priest  that  year, 
said  unto  them,  Ye  know  nothing  at  all,  nor 
do  ye  take  account  that  it  is  expedient  for 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

you  that  one  man  should  die  for  the  people, 
and  that  the  whole  nation  perish  not."  I  am 
not  interested  for  the  moment  in  these  ex- 
traordinary words  Caiaphas  uttered,  but  I  pass 
on  to  that  which  comes  after,  and  which  is  an 
inspired  exposition  of  the  priest's  words: 
''Now  this  he  said  not  of  himself;  but  being 
high  priest  that  year,  he  prophesied  that  Jesus 
should  die  for  the  nation;  and  not  for  the 
nation  only,  but  that  he  might  also  gather 
together  into  one  the  children  of  God  that  are 
scattered  abroad. "  It  is  thus  most  explicitly 
stated  that  ''not  the  nation  only,"  but  "the 
children  of  God  that  are  scattered  abroad" 
are  to  be  gathered.  Jesus  Christ  came  into 
the  world  to  gather  into  one  the  scattered 
family  of  the  Most  High. 

Now,  turn  away  from  the  Gospel  narrative 
and  come  to  the  day  in  which  we  live.  There 
is  a  phrase  that  has  been  very  much  on  the 
lips  and  pens  of  certain  men  for  the  last  five 
and  twenty  years  or  more :  the  ' '  solidarity  of 
humanity. "  It  is  one  of  those  phrases  that 
sounds  as  if  there  was  a  good  deal  in  it,  and 
men  have  made  the  most  of  it.  They  have 
written  books  under  the  impulse  of  what  there 
is  behind  that  phrase;  they  have  formulated 
i86 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

philosophies,  designing  them  upon  that  phrase. 
Trench  tells  us  that  it  comes  to  us  from  the 
Communists.  ' '  The  solidarity  of  humanity. ' ' 
What  do  they  mean  when  they  talk  about  the 
solidarity  of  humanity.?  It  means  that  human- 
ity is  not  a  gathering  together  of  units,  each 
one  separate  and  alone,  but  that  humanity  is 
one;  that  all  men  are  dependent  upon  all  other 
men,  and  that  the  race  is  united  from  its  be- 
ginning to  its  end;  that  this  particular  genera- 
tion of  which  you  and  I  form  a  part  owes  an 
enormous  amount  to  the  generations  that  have 
preceded  it;  that  we  are  helping  to  make  the 
history  of  the  generations  that  are  coming 
after  us;  that  what  Kingsley  sang  about  the 
new-born  babe  is  perfectly  true;  that  that 
child  is  ''heir  of  all  the  ages."  Not  only  is 
humanity  one  when  you  trace  it  in  its  move- 
ments through  history,  but  in  its  relationship 
to-day.  Every  nation  of  the  world  is  linked 
to  every  other  nation  of  the  world.  We  owe 
something  to  other  men;  other  men  owe  much 
to  us.  ' '  No  man  liveth  unto  himself. ' '  The 
race  is  one.  bound  up  by  bonds  that  cannot 
be  broken. 

Now,  if  Trench  is  right,  that  we  get  that 
phrase  from  the  Communists,  the  truth  that 
187 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

is  enshrined  in  it  we  do  not  get  from  the 
Communists.  It  is  a  divine  truth.  It  is  a 
revelation  of  the  purpose  and  thought  of  God 
for  humanity. 

What  is  God's  thought  for  the  human  race? 
Hear  it  in  these  words  of  inspiration:  ''He 
hath  made  of  one  blood  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth."  The  divine  ideal  for  humanity  is, 
that  humanity  is  to  be  one  family;  that  man 
should  serve  his  brother  man,  and  in  that  ser- 
vice find  his  purest  delight;  that  man  should 
make  perpetual  acknowledgment  every  day 
and  always  of  his  indebtedness  to  his  fellow- 
men;  that  there  should  be  no  self -conscious- 
ness and  self-seeking  which  is  at  the  expense 
of  the  right  and  the  comfort  and  the  blessed- 
ness of  other  men.  That  is  the  divine  ideal. 
It  is  upon  that  ideal  of  humanity  as  a  whole 
that  Jesus  Christ  based  all  His  work  and 
all  His  teaching;  and  that  the  apostles  of 
Jesus  Christ  prosecuted  their  mission  in  the 
world. 

But  is  this  realised.?  As  I  have  said,  men 
are  writing  about  it.  America  has  produced 
some  men  who  have  dreamed  wonderful 
dreams  on  this  very  line.  There  has  lately 
passed  to  his  rest  a  most  remarkable  man, 
1 88 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

Edward  Bellamy,  whose  books  I  have  read 
with  keen  interest,  and  have  detected  beneath 
them  the  aspiration  of  a  great  heart  after  a 
divine  ideal  that  he  never  understood;  and  the 
trouble  is,  Edward  Bellamy  wanted  to  get 
society  into  the  kingdom  of  God  without  tak- 
ing it  by  the  way  of  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  he  could  never  do  it.  He  and  other 
dreamers  of  beautiful  dreams,  in  which  men 
shall  lose  the  miserable  idea  that  any  work  is 
dishonorable,  wanted  to  pass  into  that  realm 
outside  the  actual,  positive,  interfering  govern- 
ment of  God;  and  it  can  never  be  done.  You 
cannot  grow  the  tulips  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
except  you  get  the  bulbs  from  heaven.  Never 
forget  that. 

The  fact  is,  that  is  an  ideal,  a  dream. 
How  about  the  realisation.'*  There  is  a  great 
disintegration  of  humanity.  We  are  broken 
up;  we  are  split;  we  are  divided.  Look 
where  you  will  you  see  that  the  divine  ideal 
of  the  human  race  is  lost.  I  do  not  want  to 
be  misunderstood  at  this  point,  but  I  feel  that 
you  are  ready  to  take  a  high  and  spiritual  out- 
look upon  these  things,  and  that  you  will  bear 
with  me  patiently  when  I  say  that  nationality 
is  a  poor  business;  that  patriotism  is  some- 
189 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

thing  that  perhaps  is  necessary  for  to-day,  in 
the  midst  of  the  chaos  and  break-up  of  the 
great  ideal  of  God  for  humanity,  but  that  in 
the  day  when  the  King  shall  reign  we  will 
talk  no  more  about  my  nationality  as  against 
yours.  We  shall  enter  into  the  larger  ideal 
that  we  are  one,  the  round  world  over;  that 
every  man  with  the  image  of  God  upon  him, 
the  breath  of  God  in  him,  is  a  brother  man, 
to  be  loved  and  served  and  cared  for.  We 
shall  pass  away  from  the  idea  that  because  we 
are  a  great  and  mighty  nation  we  have  any 
business  to  override  and  destroy  other  nations 
that  are  weaker  than  we  are.  We  shall  learn 
that  every  man  has  rights  because  he  is  a  child 
of  God,  and  we  shall  respect  them.  But  that 
time  has  not  come  yet.  If  you  want  to  know 
something  about  the  disintegration  of  human- 
ity as  against  the  solidarity  of  humanity,  see 
the  civilised,  the  Christianised  (God  forgive 
us  for  abusing  the  word!) — the  Christianised 
nations  of  Europe  watching  each  other  with  a 
suspicion  that  is  devilish  and  horrible.  There 
is  nothing  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  it. 

Come  down  from  the  national  outlook  and 
consider  the  home.     There  is  nothing  that  is 
saddening  me  more  in  England  to-day  than 
190 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

the  break-up  of  our  home  Hfe;  that  the  old 
family  circles  that  made  a  poet  write  these 
words,  ''The  heart  has  many  a  dwelling- 
place,  but  only  once  a  home,"  are  passing 
away  from  our  country.  Children  are  grow- 
ing away  from  their  parents,  and  parents  from 
their  children,  and  the  old  strong  bands  that 
made  up  a  strong  nation  because  we  were 
strong  in  our  family  relationships  are  being 
broken.  Everywhere  there  are  marks  of  dis- 
integration. 

Then  come  into  the  Church  of  God.  Do 
you  get  any  comfort  out  of  the  division  in  the 
Church  of  God?  I  hope  you  don't.  I  hope 
you  have  never  said  that  it  is  part  of  the 
divine  plan  that  Christendom  should  be  split 
into  a  thousand  fragments.  I  tell  you  it  isn't. 
He  Who  prayed  the  great  intercessory  prayer 
which  took  hold  of  heaven  in  my  behalf  and 
your  behalf  for  all  time,  said,  ''Father,  I  will 
that  they  may  be  one,  that  the  world  may 
know  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me."  We  are  not 
one,  and  that  is  why  the  world  doesn't  know 
that  God  sent  Jesus. 

Come  down  into  the  detail  of  life,  and  you 
will  find  the  same  break-up  everywhere;  that 
instead  of  there  being  oneness  in  the  human 
191 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

family,  there  is  infinite  division  and  infinite 
distrust.  Men  do  not  trust  each  other  in 
commerce  or  in  social  life  or  in  church  life. 
Everywhere  there  are  the  marks  of  a  great 
disintegrating  force,  which  has  broken  human- 
ity into  a  thousand  parts,  and  the  great  ideal 
of  the  oneness  of  the  race  is  lost. 

Christ  came  to  gather  together  into  one 
the  children  of  God  that  are  scattered.  That 
was  His  mission.  How  is  He  going  to  do  it? 
He  will  do  it,  as  God  does  everything,  funda- 
mentally. He  will  never  tinker  with  exter- 
nals; He  will  go  to  the  heart  of  the  matter. 
He  will  never  attempt  to  paint  on  tho  outside 
that  which  is  rotten.  He  will  demolish  that 
which  is  old,  and  He  will  bring  in  better 
things.  And  how  does  He  do  it?  He  comes 
into  the  midst  of  men  Himself  to  reveal  God, 
to  restore  the  divine  government,  to  do  battle 
in  His  own  life  and  in  His  cross  and  passion, 
with  the  sin  that  has  divided  humanity. 

That  was  His  mission.  He  came  to  gather 
together.  He  came  to  wipe  out  the  lines  that 
create  nationalities,  and  bring  us  back  into  the 
one  family  of  God;  to  bind  together  into  closer 
harmony  the  families  of  the  earth;  to  heal  the 
breach  between  man  and  man;  to  drive  away 
193 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

from  the  earth  every  form  of  difference  and 
dissension. 

But  some  one  says,  ''Didn't  He  say,  *I 
am  come  to  send  a  sword'?  " 

That  was  a  statement  of  the  necessity  of 
the  Gospel  He  preached.  He  knew  the  con- 
dition of  man,  and  He  knew  that  His  an- 
nouncement of  divine  kingship,  the  only  truth 
that  could  ever  heal  the  divisions,  must,  be- 
fore the  great  work  is  completed,  scatter  the 
sword,  and  apparently  rend  humanity  further 
and  further  apart.  But  that  rending  is  only 
that  which  precedes  the  healing,  and  the 
sword  He  sends  is  the  sword  which  makes 
way  for  purity,  and  opens  the  door  for  peace. 
So  He  came  to  gather  together. 

Oh,  how  one  would  like  to  take  up  His  life 
and  look  at  it  in  that  light!  His  teachings. 
His  miracles,  look  at  Him  again!  Healing 
wounds,  gathering  together  a  few  men  in  the 
first  place,  and  of  them  saying,  ''Who  is  My 
mother,  and  who  are  My  brethren.'*  Those 
who  do  My  Father's  will."  What  did  He 
mean?  He  meant  to  say,  Here  is  the  higher 
relationship,  above  the  relationship  of  blood, 
the  relationship  of  spiritual  affinity  in  the  king- 
dom of  God;  and  mother  and  brethren  pass 

193 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

out  of  sight  in  the  presence  of  this  new  rela- 
tionship. He  says  to  me,  as  He  said  to  the 
men  then: 

^*If  you  are  coming  after  Me,  you  must 
leave  father,  mother,  and  husband  and  wife. 
You  must  put  Me  first. ' ' 

I  say,  ''Master,  it  is  a  hard  thing  to  do." 

He  replies:  ''But  that  is  what  I  did  for 
you.  I  put  you  before  mother  and  brother. 
If  you  come  to  Me  you  must  do  as  much  for 
Me  as  I  have  done  for  you. ' ' 

And  so  He  created  that  little  spiritual 
circle,  and  He  came  to  gather  others  into  it, 
and  thank  God,  His  work  will  never  cease 
until  He  Himself  comes  again  and  establishes 
the  kingdom  out  of  which  He  will  drive  all 
dissension,  and  into  which  He  will  gather  the 
children  of  God  that  are  scattered  abroad.  It 
is  the  great  work  of  Christ  to  heal  the  wounds, 
to  make  dissension  cease,  and  to  bring  the 
world  around  Himself  into  a  sacred  brother- 
hood, in  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  That  is  the 
great  mission  of  Christ. 

Now  I  pass  to  the  second  point.     After 
that  vision  of  His  work,  what  does  He  say? 
"He  that  is  not  with  Me  is  against  Me;  and 
he  that  gathereth  not  with  Me  scattereth." 
194 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

Jesus  came  to  gather,  and  He  says  that  I 
am  helping  or  hindering,  with  Him  or  against 
Him;  that  I  am  gathering  or  scattering.  Let 
me  say,  first  of  all,  that  the  influence  I  exert 
in  the  world  is  created  by  my  relationship  to 
Jesus  Christ.  If  1  am  with  Him,  I  am  a 
gatherer.  If  I  am  His  and  He  is  mine,  if 
Christ  be  formed  in  me  actually,  what  will  be 
the  effect.?  I  shall  be  gathering  with  Him, 
bringing  men  to  Him;  and  in  bringing  men 
to  Him  I  am  bringing  men  to  each  other. 
Did  that  ever  strike  you.?  The  Man  stands 
amid  humanity,  and  is  its  center  of  attraction 
Godward  and  heavenward.  In  proportion  as 
men  are  brought  near  to  Him,  in  that  propor- 
tion they  are  coming  near  to  each  other;  and 
any  attempt  to  get  men  near  together,  apart 
from  the  attraction  of  Jesus  Christ  and  His 
power  to  hold  them  together,  is  a  dream  that 
cannot  be  realised.  Men  have  the  dream  of 
unity,  but  they  haven't  seen  the  center  of 
attraction  to  unite  them. 

And  how  will  it  work  out?  It  will  begin 
in  your  home.  You  will  gather  your  children 
together  first.  It  is  time  some  Christians 
ceased  trying  to  gather  men  together  who  live 
in  the  slums,  and  gave  their  time  to  getting 

195 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

their  children  together.  One  of  my  deacons 
once  said  to  me,  casually,  lightly,  smilingly, 
as  though  it  was  a  very  pretty,  pleasing  thing 
to  say: 

*'Do  you  know,  Mr.  Morgan,  I  don't  see 
my  bairns" — and  he  had  two  beautiful  chil- 
dren— ''I  haven't  seen  my  bairns  awake  for 
several  months." 

I  said  to  him:   "What  do  you  mean?" 

''Well,"  he  said,  ''don't  you  see,  I  have 
been  so  fearfully  busy,  business  is  growing  at 
such  a  rate,  that  I  am  up  and  off  in  the  morn- 
ing before  they  are  awake,  and  I  do  not  get 
home  at  night  until  they  are  in  bed;  and  on 
Sunday  I  am  down  at  the  church  all  day,  and 
I  hardly  see  them  then. ' ' 

I  said  to  him:  "My  dear  brother,  for 
God's  sake  and  for  your  children's  sake, 
drop  something  in  your  business;  and  if  you 
cannot  do  that,  drop  something  at  the  church, 
and  look  after  your  bairns.  It  is  an  infinitely 
better  investment  to  give  your  time  to  them 
and  to  keep  your  hand  on  them  than  anything 
else  you  can  do. ' ' 

A  man  that  cannot  hold  his  family  together 
for  Christ  by  the  attractive  power  of  Christ 
in  his  own  life  isn't  wanted  in  the  church;  let 
196 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

him  keep  out.  That  man  cannot  do  anything 
for  God  in  public  places  if  his  own  home  is 
devastated  and  broken  up  by  the  principle  of 
rebellion  against  God.  And  if  the  influence 
a  man  is  exerting  on  his  family  is  an  influence 
that  scatters,  that  man  is  not  with  Christ.  If 
you  are  with  Christ,  hold  your  bairns  for  Him, 
and  your  family  will  be  God's  first  circle  of 
the  kingdom,  as  it  always  has  been,  and  it 
will  be  a  witness  to  the  power  of  Christ  in 
you,  and  through  you,  to  gather  men  together. 
We  had  a  craze  across  the  water  a  few 
years  ago,  an  aesthetic  craze.  Men  raved 
about  dandelions  and  about  lilies.  Men 
posed  in  womanly  attitudes  and  said  that  they 
could  exist  for  a  week  upon  a  lily.  It  was 
neurotic;  it  was  rotten;  and  the  high  priest 
of  the  whole  business,  the  apostle  of  the 
aesthetic  craze,  had  to  go  to  prison  as  a  com- 
mon prisoner  for  beastliness  of  conduct  that 
cannot  be  named  in  public.  If  you  try  to 
gather  men  together  by  painting  a  lily  on  a 
plate  and  giving  them  a  sweet  willow  pattern 
— oh,  God,  the  mockery  of  it!  You  cannot 
touch  men's  hearts  like  that.  If  you  are  not 
with  Christ  you  cannot  gather  men,  I  don't 
care  what  your  philosophy  is,  what  your  policy 
197 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

is,  or  what  the  basis  of  art,  or  education,  or 
culture,  or  anything  you  please.  No  power 
the  world  has  ever  heard  taught  or  preached, 
save  the  power  of  the  crucified,  risen  Christ, 
is  sufficient  to  gather  men  together  into  one. 

You  say,  **  Can't  we  improve  the  dwell- 
ings of  the  poor?" 

Yes,  God  help  us  to  do  it;  but  one  of  the 
best  ways  to  do  it  is  to  improve  the  man  that 
lives  in  the  dwelling. 

I  remember  some  years  ago  conducting  a 
mission,  and  one  of  the  office-bearers  of  the 
church  where  I  was,  said  to  me: 

"Mr.  Morgan,  I  want  you  to  come  and 
see  some  people.  A  girl  was  married  out  of 
our  Sunday  school  three  years  ago,  to  a  man 
who  is  a  slave  to  drink  and  impurity  and 
gambling.  I  would  like  you  to  come  along 
and  see  her. ' ' 

I  went — it  was  in  '85 — on  a  cold  February 
day,  to  see  that  girl.  Oh,  I  cannot  picture 
the  home  to  you!  It  was  one  of  those  awful 
houses  in  the  midlands  of  England,  reached 
by  passing  through  an  entry  between  other 
houses,  into  a  back  court.  When  I  got  to 
the  entry  with  my  friend,  some  children  who 
were  hovering  and  shivering  there,  hearing 
198 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

our  steps  approaching,  rushed  away.  We 
followed  them  and  went  into  the  house.  I 
see  that  room  now.  There  was  a  broken 
table  standing  there,  a  chair  with  the  back 
broken  off  standing  by  it,  no  fire  in  the  grate; 
upon  the  mantel-shelf  a  cup  and  saucer, 
broken;  and  not  another  article  of  furniture 
that  my  eye  rested  on  in  that  room.  And 
there  stood  a  woman  in  unwomanly  rags  with 
the  mark  of  a  brutal  fist  upon  her  face,  and 
three  ill-clad  bairns  clinging  to  her  gown. 
She  said: 

*' Excuse  the  children  running  from  you, 
but  they  thought  that  it  was  father. ' ' 

Oh,  the  tragedy  of  it! 

When  I  got  on  to  the  rostrum  that  night 
to  preach,  my  friend  came  to  me  and  said: 

'^He  is  here.'* 

I  said:   ''Who  is  here?" 

*'That  woman's  husband;  he  is  sitting 
right  down  in  front  of  you. ' ' 

Now,  I  don't  often  preach  at  one  man,  but 
I  did  that  night.  I  put  aside  what  I  was 
going  to  talk  about,  and  read  the  story  of  the 
prodigal,  and  I  asked  God  to  help  me  talk 
about  it,  and  for  about  a  solid  hour  I  preached 
at  that  man.  Do  you  think  I  hammered  at 
199 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

him  and  scolded  him?  Not  I.  I  told  him 
God  loved  him,  there  and  then;  and  when  we 
got  to  our  after-meeting,  I  asked,  ''What  man 
is  coming  home  to-night?"  And  he  was  the 
very  first  to  rise.  He  came  forward,  and  as 
I  went  down  from  the  rostrum  and  gave  that 
meeting  into  some  one  else's  hands,  and  got 
my  arm  around  him  and  prayed  and  wept  with 
him,  he  entered  into  the  kingdom  of  God. 

My  friend  said  to  me  one  day  about  twelve 
months  later,  '*I  want  you  to  go  and  see 
some  people. ' ' 

I  said,  ''Who?" 

He  said,  ' '  Do  you  remember  going  to  see  a 
woman  last  year  whose  husband  was  converted? 
I  want  you  to  come  and  see  those  people." 

I  went.  We  hadn't  gone  far — it  was 
February  of  the  next  year — before  I  said  to 
him,  "Friend,  where  are  you  taking  me?" 

' '  Oh,  we  are  going  to  see  those  people. ' ' 

"But,"  I  said,  "we  are  not  going  the 
same  way." 

"No,"  he  said,  "they  have  moved." 

Moved!  Why  did  they  move?  Why,  the 
man  was  converted,  and  he  soon  changed  his 
dwelling-place.  The  man  was  remade,  and 
he  remade  his  environment;  and  he  had  gone, 
V  200 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

not  into  a  palace,  but  into  a  cottage  in  the 
main  street. 

If  I  could  paint  pictures  I  would  paint 
those  two.  I  can  see  that  home  now.  It 
was  on  a  Sunday,  after  the  afternoon  service, 
and  he  sat  by  the  fire  with  his  three  bairns, 
who  had  run  away  from  him  a  year  ago.  One 
was  on  his  knee,  another  on  his  shoulder,  and 
another  stood  by  him;  and  I  never  heard  a 
sweeter  solo  in  my  life  than  the  solo  the  kettle 
sang  on  the  hob  that  day.  The  woman  that 
last  year  was  dressed  in  unwomanly  rags  was 
clothed,  and  the  sunlight  of  love  was  on  her 
face. 

That  is  how  you  must  deal  with  the  prob- 
lem of  environment.  Begin  at  its  middle. 
Touch  the  man  who  makes  the  beastly  en- 
vironment, and  remake  him,  and  he  will 
soon  move  out  of  the  tenement-house  and 
out  of  the  slum;  he  will  soon  find  his  way 
on  to  higher  levels.  That  is  the  way  to 
gather  men  and  women.  Unless  you  are 
with  Jesus  Christ,  you  can  try  education  and 
culture,  but  it  all  comes  short  of  life,  and 
without  life  there  is  no  remaking  of  men. 

Now,  my  brother,  are  you  with  Christ  in 
this  enterprise? 

20 1 


/ 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

My  last  word  is  a  reversal  of  that  position. 
And  now  we  come  to  this  text  as  to  a  judg- 
ment-seat. It  is  not  only  true  that  your  in- 
fluence will  be  created  by  your  relationship  to 
Jesus  Christ ;  it  is  also  true  that  your  relation- 
ship to'  Jesus  Christ  is  revealed  by  the  influ- 
ence you  are  exercising. 

I  am  getting  less  and  less  anxious  to  hear 
what  men  say.  What  is  the  influence  you 
are  exerting  in  the  world. '^  Show  me  a  man 
who  is  gathering  men,  who  is  healing  wounds, 
who  is  closing  up  breaches,  who  is  coming 
into  life  with  a  sacred,  subtle,  forceful  mien 
which  makes  men  love  each  other  because  he 
is  there,  that  man  is  with  Christ.  I  am  not 
particular  whether  he  spells  his  denomination 
with  a  P  or  C,  or  anything  you  like;  the  point 
is  whether  he  is  gathering  men.  May  God 
help  us  to  drop  trying  to  order  men  out  of 
service  because  they  do  not  follow  with  us. 

You  say,  ''You  know  it  is  apostolic." 

I  am  not  particular  about  being  in  apostolic 
succession;  they  made  such  miserable  blun- 
ders right  along.  Go  back  to  the  ninth  chap- 
ter of  the  Gospel  of  Mark.  John  said  unto 
Christ: 

"Master,  we  saw  one  casting  out  devils." 
202 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

'  *  Oh,  did  you?  You  must  have  been  glad, 
John." 

^'Yes,  and  in  the  name  of  Jesus." 

''Blessed  work!  Glorious  work!  I  want 
to  know  that  man. " 

*'We  saw  one  casting  out  devils  in  Thy 
name,  and  we  forbade  him." 

''Why,  why?" 

"Because  he  followed  not  after  us." 
"Followed  not  us,"  it  really  is.  "Because 
he  followed  not  us. ' ' 

Jesus  said,  "Forbid  him  not;  for  there  is 
no  man  which  shall  do  a  mighty  work  in  My 
name,  and  be  able  to  speak  evil  of  Me.  For 
he  that  is  not  against  us  is  for  us. ' ' 

Ah,  that  is  the  test!  Do  you  know  a  man 
that  casts  out  devils,  my  dear  brother,  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  and  he  isn't  a  Presby- 
terian? Don't  hinder  him.  "Oh,  no,"  you 
say,  "we  shouldn't  think  of  doing  that;  he  is 
a  Congregationalist. ' '  But  supposing  he  isn't 
that;  supposing  he  is  none  of  your  ists  and 
your  isms;  supposing  he  is  just  a  man  that 
has  got  into  touch  with  Christ  and  hardly 
knows  the  truth  himself  yet.  Let  him  alone! 
He  cannot  work  a  work  in  the  name  of  Christ 
and  speak  evil  of  Him.  If  he  is  not  against 
203 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

the  Christ,  he  is  with  Him.  Take  this  larger 
outlook,  this  practical  test  of  position. 

But  there  is  another  word,  which  is  part 
of  that  last  thought:  a  man  who  is  scattering 
is  not  a  Christian. 

Do  you  know  that  man  who  has  lost  his 
children? 

''What  do  you  mean?  a  man  that  has 
buried  them?" 

Oh,  no,  no!  God  help  him,  it  would  have 
been  better  if  he  had,  long  ago.  He  has  lost 
them.  He  has  no  hold  on  them,  no  influence 
over  them.  They  have  gone  from  his  home 
and  scattered,  and  going  from  his  house  they 
have  gone  from  his  God  with  great  relief. 
They  were  glad  to  go  away  from  him  so  as  to 
get  away  from  his  God,  and  they  are  swearing 
against  God  to-day. 

''Why?" 

Because  of  that  man's  influence. 

"But  that  man  is  a  church  member." 

I  don't  care;  he  isn't  a  Christian. 

"But  that  man  preaches." 

I  don't  care;  if  he  has  lost  his  children  it 
is  because  he  has  not  been  with  Christ,  but 
against  Him.  Show  me  the  man  that  is  split- 
ting and  dividing  the  church,  dividing  the 
204 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

nation,  setting  man  against  man,  that  man 
isn't  a  Christian.  I  don't  care  what  his  sub- 
scription is,  what  his  profession  is,  what  the 
noise  he  makes  in  the  world;  all  these  things 
are  nothing.  If  that  man  isn't  gathering  with 
Jesus,  he  is  scattering;  and  if  he  is  scattering, 
he  is  not  ivitJi,  he  is  against,  Christ. 

So  much  for  the  teaching  of  that  verse,  as 
I  understand  it.  Now,  where  are  you,  and 
where  am  I?  Am  I  with  the  Master,  or  am 
I  against  Him? 

You  say:  ''Well,  I  am  not  exactly  with 
Him,  but  I  am  not  against  Him." 

You  are  wrong.  There  is  no  middle 
place. 

''Oh,"  you  say,  "there  must  be  a  middle 
place.  I  have  never  done  anything  for  Him; 
I  have  never  led  a  soul  to  Him;  I  have  never 
preached  for  Him  or  spoken  for  Him,  or 
given  a  tract  away  for  Him,  or  even  given  a 
cup  of  cold  water  for  His  sake;  but  I  have 
never  hindered  Him;  I  haven't  spoken  against 
Him;   I  haven't  denounced  Christianity." 

Some  of  you  have  been  in  London.  When 
you  visit  London  again,  get  down  in  the  cen- 
ter of  the  great  city  and  stand  still  and  look 
in  a  window.  You  won't  be  there  long  be- 
205 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

fore  a  man  in  blue  will  put  his  hand  on  your 
shoulder  and  say: 
** Please  move  on." 
**Why  should  I  move  on?" 
'*You  are  blocking  the  traffic." 
* '  I  am  not  interfering  with  any  one. ' ' 
''Your  standing  still  and  doing  nothing  is 
going  to  cause  an  obstruction  here;  you  must 
please  move  on.     Keep  moving.     You  can 
go  that  way,   or  you  can  go  that,   but  you 
cannot  stand  still;  you  must  move." 

My  brother,  my  sister,  you  cannot  stand 
^till.     The  moment  you  stand  still  and  say, 
(  "I   am   just  going   to  be   an  interested  on- 
[  looker,"  you  become  an  obstacle  in  His  way, 
\  you  retard  His  progress.      If  you  stand,  some 
one  else  is  going  to  stand.      Don't  you  know 
v^  0    (  that?     You  can't  stand  still  without  impeding 
progress.      If  you  are  not  with  Him,  you  are 
against  Him.      If  you  are  not  exercising  the 
great  force  that  gathers,  by  your  very  nega- 
tion of  that,  you  are  exercising  the  force  that 
scatters  men  here  and  there  and  everywhere. 
Men    and    women,  will    you   take    sides? 
Cease    trying   to   be   neutral,    I    pray   you. 
Whether  you  have  ever  before  professed  to 
be  a  Christian  or  not,  I  care  not.      I   appeal 
206 


Gathering  or  Scattering. 

to  you  now.  I  call  for  men  and  women  to 
take  sides  definitely  and  positively  in  this 
matter.  The  great  Lord  Jesus,  sweet  and 
strong,  tender  and  mighty,  came  from  heaven 
to  earth  to  gather  men  together,  and  He  says 
every  one  is  helping  Him  or  hindering  Him. 
Which  is  it.? 

Do  not  say,  I  beseech  you,  ''It  is  no  use 
for  me  to  pretend  to  take  sides  with  Christ; 
I  can  do  so  little. ' ' 

It  is  your  life  that  helps  Him,  not  the  extra 
activity  in  which  you  engage  now  and  again. 
What  the  Master  wants  to-day  in  all  the  cities 
and  villages  of  England  and  America  is  men 
and  women  who  are  living  with  Him. 
America  is  waiting  for  the  manifestation  of 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  God;  and  wherever 
you  are  manifested  to  be  related  to  God  in 
Christ,  you  become  part  of  the  great  force 
that  is  gathering  men  together.  You  con- 
tribute by  that  relationship  to  God  in  Christ 
to  the  work  of  Christ  in  healing  wounds,  clos- 
ing up  the  breaches,  and  making  all  the  fami- 
lies of  the  earth  one,  as  God  has  purposed 
they  should  be. 

What  we  want  is  not  to  ask  men  so  much 
to  take  sides,  because  they  are  doing  that 
207 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

whether  or  no;  what  we  need  is  to  appeal  to 
them  to  take  the  side  of  Christ.  Isn't  it 
better  to  construct  than  to  destroy,  to  heal 
than  to  wound,  to  gather  men  than  to  scatter 
them?  Then  will  you  not  be  among  the  num- 
ber of  those  who  come  to  the  Nazarene  and 
say: 

''Oh,  Jesus,  by  Thy  infinite  compassion, 
by  Thy  love  passing  all  human  telling.  Thou 
hast  conquered  me.  I  am  come  to  Thee. 
Take  my  life,  poor,  weak,  insufficient  by  every 
standard  of  human  measurement,  but  let  Thy 
life  flow  into  it,  and  through  it,  that  my  life 
may  make  some  little  contribution  to  the  reali- 
sation of  Thy  great  purpose. ' ' 

Lord  Jesus,  from  to-day  let  me  more  than 
ever  be  a  gatherer  of  Thine.  Prevent  me 
from  scattering.  Do  this.  Lord,  by  taking 
more  complete  possession  of  me  than  ever 
before.  To  this  end  I  yield  to  Thee  all  I  am, 
and  have,  and  hope  for,  in  order  that  through 
me  some  part  of  Thy  kingdom  may  come  and 
Thy  will  be  done.     Amen. 


208 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

**Lot  moved  his  tent  as  far  as  Sodom." — Gen.  xiii.  12. 

While  a  great  many  details  in  the  story  of 
Lot  are  purely  local,  and  their  colour  has 
faded,  the  underlying  principles  are  full  of 
present  meaning  and  present  application. 
And  so  I  propose  to  ask  you  to  look  with  me 
at  this  man  Lot.  Lot  was  a  good  man  who 
acted  upon  a  wrong  principle,  with  disastrous 
results.  Now,  it  may  be  almost  a  startling 
thing  to  say  that  Lot  was  a  good  man.  I  am 
bound  to  confess  that  if  I  only  had  the  story 
of  the  history  that  I  find  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment I  should  hardly  have  come  to  that  con- 
clusion, but  my  failure  to  understand  Lot 
would  have  been  due  to  my  inability  to  read 
the  story  aright.  In  the  New  Testament  it 
is  distinctly  declared  that  he  was  "a  right- 
eous man. ' ' 

I  repeat,  therefore,  that  this  is  the  story 
of  a  good  man — good,  that  is,  in  intention, 
good  in  the  deepest  desire  of  his  heart,  per- 
fectly sincere  in  many  ways,  always  desiring 

21  I 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

to  be  right,  and  yet  becoming  so  sadly  wrong 
that  to-day  he  stands  out  upon  the  page  of 
Holy  Scripture,  not  as  an  example  in  whose 
steps  we  should  follow,  but  as  a  warning,  in 
order  that  we  may  avoid  his  pathway.  What 
a  strange  contradiction  this  is — a  good  man 
held  up  as  a  warning,  a  man  who  meant  well, 
and  yet  so  lived  that  the  one  thing  we  need 
to  be  careful  of  in  life  is,  that  we  do  not  live 
as  he  lived.  Is  it  not  true  that  there  are 
thousands  of  such  people  in  the  world  at  the 
present  time.?  I  am  not  at  all  sure,  that  if  it 
were  possible  for  us  to  analyse  the  inner  life 
of  the  great  majority  of  people  we  should  not 
find  them  in  very  much  the  same  condition. 
They  mean  well,  and  think  that  they  would 
always  choose  the  good  and  refuse  the  evil; 
and  yet  they  are  very  often  doing  evil  and 
refusing  the  good.  Strange  contradictions 
they  seem  to  be,  men  who  want  to  be  right, 
and  are  wrong;  men  who  admire  the  things 
that  are  high  and  noble  and  beautiful,  and 
yet  do  the  things  that  are  low  and  mean  and 
base. 

Lot  was  such  a  man,  and  therefore  it  must 
be  of  great  interest,  I .  think,  that  we  should 
attempt  to  discover  his  mistake,  to  trace  it  in 

213 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

its  outworkings,  that  we  may  be  warned  from 
treading  in  his  footsteps. 

Now,  first  of  all,  let  me  remind  you  that 
this  man  Lot  had  been  closely  associated  with 
Abram  from  his  first  move,  from  his  move 
with  Terah  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees.  Let  us 
go  back,  and  read  one  or  two  verses,  to  give 
us  the  sequence  of  the  history.  In  the 
eleventh  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  the  thirty- 
first  verse,  I  read:  ^'And  Terah  took  Abram 
his  son,  and  Lot  the  son  of  Haran,  his  son's 
son,  and  Sarai  his  daughter-in-law,  his  son 
Abram's  wife" — will  you  notice  what  hap- 
pened— *'and  they  went  forth  with  them  from 
Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  to  go  into  the  land  of 
Canaan" — but  they  did  not  get  to  Canaan — 
*'they  came  to  Haran  and  dwelt  there." 
That  was  the  first  move,  and  it  would  almost 
seem  as  though  originally  the  move  was  not 
that  of  Abram,  but  that  of  his  father  Terah. 
What  I  want  you  specially  to  notice,  however, 
is  that  Lot  was  with  them. 

Now  pass  on  to  chapter  twelve,  and  the 
fifth  verse,  ''And  Abram  took  Sarai  his  wife, 
and  Lot  his  brother's  son,  and  all  their  sub- 
stance, that  they  had  gathered,  and  the  souls 
that  they  had  gotten  in  Haran;  and  they  went 
213 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

forth  to  go  into  the  land  of  Canaan;  and  into 
the  land  of  Canaan  they  came. ' '  That  was 
the  second  move.  They  waited  in  Haran 
until  Terah  died,  and  then  they  moved  on 
again,  again  starting  to  go  into  the  land  of 
Canaan,  and  this  time  arriving  there.  Notice 
specially  that  Lot  was  still  with  them. 

Now  turn  on  to  the  thirteenth  chapter,  and 
I  read,  '^And  Abram  went  up  out  of  Egypt, 
he,  and  his  wife,  and  all  that  he  had,  and  Lot 
with  him,"  so  you  see  that  he  had  been  with 
Abram  when  he  had  gone  down  into  Egypt — 
something  Abram  ought  never  to  have  done — 
and  after  that  Abram  came  up  out  of  Egypt, 
Lot  was  still  with  him,  and  now  we  come  to 
that  crisis  in  the  lives  of  the  two  men,  when 
they  parted  from  each  other,  and  it  is  in  this 
connection  that  the  true  character,  both  of 
Abram  and  Lot,  is  revealed  before  us. 

Notice  the  crisis  for  a  moment.  Domestic 
difficulties  had  arisen,  which  had  in  them  ele- 
ments of  discord.  Abram  and  Lot  had  be- 
come very  wealthy.  The  herdsmen  of  the 
two  men  quarrelled  over  the  pasturage  of  the 
flocks.  Abram,  with  the  magnanimity  of  a 
great  soul,  and  the  foresight  of  a  great  states- 
man, said  to  Lot,  ''Let  there  be  no  strife,  I 
214 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

pray  thee,  between  me  and  thee,  and  between 
my  herdsmen  and  thy  herdsmen;  for  we  are 
brethren.  Is  not  the  whole  land  before  thee? 
Separate  thyself,  I  pray  thee,  from  me;  if 
thou  wilt  take  the  left  hand,  then  I  will  go  to 
the  right;  or  if  thou  take  the  right  hand,  then 
I  will  go  to  the  left." 

It  is  under  these  circumstances  that  the 
true  character  of  Lot  is  manifested.  He 
lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  he  saw  the  well- 
watered  plain  of  the  Jordan;  and  he  saw 
down  there  on  the  plain  the  cities  in  which 
the  men  of  the  plain  had  congregated,  and 
were  living  for  commercial  pursuits,  and  the 
making  of  wealth,  and  he  chose  to  move  in 
that  direction,  and  in  that  choice  we  have  a 
revelation  of  the  man.  Parting  company 
from  Abram,  ''he  pitched  his  tent,"  as  the 
Old  Version  has  it,  ''toward  Sodom." 

Now,  these  are  small  matters.  First  of  all 
it  was  a  very  small  matter  that  created  the 
crisis  which  manifested  the  character  of 
Abram  and  Lot,  and  the  choosing  of  this  par- 
ticular place  was  a  small  matter.  The  crises 
that  test  men  are  always  small.  A  man  is 
never  revealed  when  he  is  prepared  for  the 
occasion  of  examination.     We  are  never  really 

215 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

manifested  if  we  have  been  notified  before- 
hand that  we  are  going  to  be  examined. 
Scholastic  examinations  are  really  no  test  of 
what  a  man  knows.  It  is  true  in  every  de- 
partment of  life,  that  the  test  foreannounced 
and  prepared  for,  sometimes  by  cramming, 
is  often  at  fault,  when  we  want  to  know  what 
a  man  is  or  knows.  God  never  foreannoun- 
ces  His  examinations.  If  God  were  to  an- 
nounce to  us  to-night  that  to-morrow  at  twelve 
o'clock  He  would  meet  us,  in  order  to  find 
out  what  we  were  in  character,  what  prepara- 
tions there  would  be  between  now  and  twelve 
o'clock  to-morrow.  How  careful  we  should 
be  to  appear  at  our  very  best,  and  the  result 
would  be  false.  What  you  are  flashes  out 
when  you  do  not  know  any  one  is  likely  to  be 
watching  you  critically.  In  the  small  things, 
in  the  little  details,  in  the  commonplaces  of 
life,  character  shines  out.  I  never  try  to  find 
out  what  a  preacher  is  when  he  is  preaching. 
It  is  when  he  is  at  home,  and  when  he  thinks 
there  is  no  one  there  to  critically  survey,  that 
is  the  time  to  find  out  what  he  really  is.  I 
never  want  to  find  out  what  a  deacon  is  in  a 
deacons'  meeting.  You  do  sometimes,  but 
that  is  not  the  best  time.  The  time  to  find 
216 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

that  out  is  on  Monday,  Tuesday,  Wednesday, 
during  the  week.  I  do  not  want  to  know 
what  your  character  is  when  you  are  singing. 
I  want  to  find  out  what  your  character  is  when 
something  goes  wrong,  some  little  common- 
place with  your  work  at  home.  When  you 
are  carried  along  by  the  stream  of  the  com- 
monplace, then  your  character  is  revealed. 
The  characters  of  these  two  men  are  revealed 
forevermore,  when  their  servants  begin  quar- 
relling. The  herdsmen  of  Abram  and  the 
herdsmen  of  Lot,  to  use  an  every-day  expres- 
sion, are  just  having  a  row,  and  on  the  basis 
of  that  quarrel  between  the  herdsmen  the 
character  of  Abram  is  revealed  and  the  char- 
acter of  Lot  is  revealed,  and  I  know  what  Lot 
is  and  what  Abram  is,  in  the  light  of  that 
very  unpleasant  and  absurdly  ridiculous  quar- 
rel between  men  whom  they  employed  and 
paid. 

Many  a  man  has  been  revealed  in  his  true 
light  over  quarrels  amongst  other  people, 
about  mere  trifles.  It  was  Charles  Haddon 
Spurgeon,  that  prince  of  preachers,  who  once 
said,  * '  I  will  find  out  what  pattern  your  creed 
is,  not  when  I  look  at  you  in  the  sanctuary, 
but  as  I  see  you  on  Sunday  morning,  getting 
217 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

ready  for  church,  if  certain  things  are  not  to 
your  hand  as  you  think  they  ought  to  be. " 
It  was  a  quaint,  forceful,  illuminative  state- 
ment of  a  great  truth  about  character.  I  see 
Lot,  and  I  see  Abram,  and  I  see  the  inner, 
underlying  principle  of  life  in  the  case  of  each, 
and  all  the  subsequent  history  is  true  to  the 
revelation  of  character  that  flashes  out  when 
their  herdsmen  are  quarrelling. 

Let  us  now  look  at  Lot.  When  I  close  I 
shall  ask  you  to  look  at  Abram  by  way  of 
contrast.  But  our  business  is  with  Lot. 
First  of  all  we  will  look  at  his  choice; 
secondly,  we  will  look  at  the  results  that  fol- 
low his  choice;  and  then  conclude  by  attempt- 
ing to  draw  the  very  evident  lessons  from  the 
study  that  may  be  of  profit  to  ourselves,  as 
we  take  our  way  through  life. 

And  first  we  ask  the  question.  Was  it  wrong 
to  choose?  Certainly  not.  The  supreme 
dignity  of  human  life  is  that  it  is  made  to 
choose.  The  greatest  gift  that  you  possess 
is  the  gift  of  will,  the  fact  that  there  comes  to 
you  every  day,  and  every  hour,  I  think  I  may 
safely  say  every  moment,  something  concern- 
ing which  you  have  to  elect,  to  decide,  to 
choose.  We  are  not  automatic  machines. 
218 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

We  are  independent,  free  agents.  I  can 
choose  heaven  or  hell.  It  is  a  tremendous 
issue,  but  it  is  a  magnificent  possibility. 
That  is  the  dignity  of  human  life.  If  we 
were  but  machines,  then  the  romance  and  the 
poetry  and  the  passion  of  life  would  be  at  an 
end.  If  I  must,  then  I  must,  and  the  colours 
fade  from  the  sky,  and  everything  becomes 
ashen  and  grey.  It  lacks  iron,  force,  vim, 
virtue.  Life  is  life  to  me,  because  I  have  to 
choose.  There  are  often  moments  when  we 
would  almost  wish  that  some  other  could 
choose  for  us,  and  in  our  childhood's  days, 
though  a  passion  for  choice  arose,  it  was  a 
gracious  thing  that  others  had  to  choose  for 
us.  But  it  would  be  a  sorry  thing  if  we 
always  remained  children.  In  the  very  pos- 
session of  our  being  is  the  right  to  choose, 
this  capacity  for  decision,  this  magnificent 
power  for  election.  And  in  life  every  man 
must  choose.  Lot  made  his  choice.  What, 
then,  was  wrong.?  Notice  carefully  the  prin- 
ciple of  his  choice,  and  the  purpose  of  his 
choice,  as  we  have  them  revealed  in  the 
actual  words  of  Scripture.  I  do  not  want  to 
depart  in  imagination  from  Scripture,  but  will 
read  at  the  eleventh  verse.      *'So  Lot  chose 

2IQ 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

him  all  the  plain  of  Jordan;  and  Lot  journeyed 
east;  and  they  separated  themselves  the  one 
from  the  other. ' '  Now  go  back  behind  that 
eleventh  verse,  ''And  Lot  lifted  up  his  eyes, 
and  beheld  all  the  plain  of  Jordan, ' '  and  when 
he  looked,  what  did  he  see?  He  saw  ''that 
it  was  well  watered  everywhere,  ....  like 
the  garden  of  Jehovah,  like  the  land  of  Egypt, 
as  thou  goest  into  Zoar. "  First  you  have 
the  purpose  of  his  choice  revealed  in  that  very 
little  sentence,  that  we  read  so  carelessly — 
"Lot  chose  him."  The  central  purpose  of 
his  choice  was  that  of  selfishness.  "He 
chose  him.^^  A  moment  has  come  in  the 
life  of  the  man  when  it  is  necessary  for  him 
to  choose.  He  must  make  a  choice,  and  he 
proceeds  to  exercise  his  will  upon  the  basis  of 
personal  desire  alone.  "He  chose  him,"  he 
chose  something  for  himself,  something  that 
should  minister  to  himself.  He  put  outside 
the  realm  of  the  things  that  actuated  him 
everything  except  his  own  desire,  and  his  own 
desire  in  these  things  was  that  which  should 
minister  to  his  own  self-life.  There  is  a  re- 
vealing sentence,  "Lot  chose  him  all  the  plain 
of  Jordan. "  He  was  already  a  wealthy  man. 
He  had  gotten  great  gain  while  sojourning 
220 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

with  Abram,  but  he  is  still  seeking  gain,  and 
self  is  the  underlying  reason. 

We  see  now  what  was  the  principle.  You 
may  say  it  was  not  wrong  to  get  gain.  He 
was  already  a  wealthy  man,  they  were  both 
wealthy.  There  was  surely  nothing  wrong 
in  gain.  Notice  here  carefully,  however,  that 
desiring  simply  for  himself,  he  is  entering 
upon  a  compromise  between  two  wrong  prin- 
ciples. Again  two  little  sentences  manifest 
this.  He  sees  all  the  wonderful  plain  of  the 
Jordan.  Notice  what  two  things  attracted 
him — ''Like  the  garden  of  the  Lord,"  ''Like 
the  land  of  Egypt. ' '  Ah,  yes,  this  man  has 
recently  been  down  to  Egypt.  He  has  seen 
its  commerce,  he  has  seen  its  wealth,  he  has 
seen  its  sordidness,  he  has  seen  its  blinded 
materialism,  and  he  wants  to  be  able  to  get 
gain  as  the  Egyptians  are  getting  gain.  He 
has  seen  that  down  in  those  cities  of  Egypt 
gain  was  gotten  faster  than  it  ever  can  be 
when  living  a  nomadic  life.  Here  is  a  quicker 
way  to  live  and  get  gain,  to  live  in  nearness 
to  a  city.  Like  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  yet 
like  the  garden  of  the  Lord. 

What  Lot  is  attempting  to  do  is  to  bring 
two  things  together  which  are  in  opposition  to 

221 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

each  other.  It  is  the  principle  of  compro- 
mise, and  when  he  makes  his  choice,  he  does 
not  go  straight  into  Sodom  and  Uve  there, 
''he  pitched  his  tent  as  far  as  Sodom,"  and 
lived  near  it.  You  see  without  multiplication 
of  words  what  this  man  is  doing.  He  says 
in  his  heart.  Now  my  chance  has  come.  I 
have  been  with  Abram  a  long  time,  I  have 
believed  in  his  God,  and  in  his  faith,  but  he 
is  a  little  behind  the  times,  he  is  a  little  old- 
fashioned,  he  is  just  a  wee  bit  fanatical.  I 
cannot  get  him  away  from  the  tent  and  the 
altar.  Wherever  he  goes,  he  pitches  a  tent 
and  builds  an  altar;  and  presently  he  moves 
the  tent  and  the  altar.  He  is  always  wander- 
ing, he  is  not  settled.  So  I  will  pitch  my 
tent  toward  Sodom;  I  will  get  as  near  it  as  I 
can.  Sodom  i-s  wicked.  I  have  no  desire  to 
share  its  wickedness.  I  am  not  drawn  toward 
its  evil,  but  I  will  be  near  enough  to  it  to  get 
gain  out  of  it.  The  day  Lot  pitched  his  tent 
as  far  as  Sodom,  there  is,  first,  a  selfish  motive 
behind  his  choice,  ''he  chose  him";  and  there 
is,  moreover,  the  fact  that  he  tried  to  com- 
promise, he  got  his  good,  and  yet  got  near 
enough  to  evil  to  gain  something  out  of  it.  I 
am  not  at  all  sure,  indeed  I  am  personally  in- 

222 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

clined  to  believe  that  when  he  pitched  his  tent 
toward  Sodom  he  hoped  not  merely  to  get 
something  out  of  it,  but  to  put  something  into 
it.  I  may  do  these  people  good,  I  may  influ- 
ence them  along  my  line  of  life,  I  may  be  able 
to  help  them,  I  may  be  able  to  use  the  purity 
of  a  simple  faith,  I  may  be  able  to  do  some- 
thing to  bring  them  near  the  true  and  living 
God.  I  am  going  there  to  make  wealth  faster 
than  I  can  in  the  old-fashioned  way.  Abram's 
God  I  worship  and  I  love,  but  I  will  choose 
for  myself,  and  I  will  endeavour  to  make  a 
compromise  to  get  as  near  to  Sodom  as  I  can 
in  order  that  I  may  have  the  advantage  of  life 
"like  the  garden  of  Jehovah,"  and  that  of  the 
city  where  wealth  may  be  made  faster  than  it 
can  by  men  in  tents  moving  from  place  to 
place.  It  was  choice  based  upon  purely  per- 
sonal and  selfish  reasoning. 

In  the  light  of  things  seen,  Lot  for  the 
moment  had  shut  out  of  vision  the  unseen 
things.  He  was  acting  as  though  this  life 
were  all,  as  though  the  only  thing  worth 
thinking  about  was  wealth,  as  though  the  su- 
preme aim  of  existence  was  that  of  becoming 
more  and  more  wealthy.  The  man's  eyes  are 
fastened  upon  the  earth,  and  he  does  not  see 
223 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

the  gleaming  Hght  of  the  spiritual  realm. 
He  has  forgotten  the  things  permanent,  and 
is  attempting  to  grasp  the  things  perishing. 
*'He  chose  him,"  and  it  was  a  choice  selfish 
and  compromising. 

But  now  how  did  this  work  out?  What 
followed;  what  was  the  sequel?  And  again  I 
want  to  read  verses,  remarkable  as  revealing 
the  sequel,  and  easily  remembered.  Read 
the  text  first:  ''He  moved  his  tent  as  far  as 
Sodom."  Notice  that  carefully,  not  into  the 
city,  but  near  it,  just  near  enough  to  be  able 
to  use  it.  Turn  over  to  the  very  next  chap- 
ter, and  you  will  find  something  else.  In  the 
fourteenth  chapter,  and  the  twelfth  verse  I 
read  these  words,  ''Lot,  Abram's  brother's 
son,  who  dwelt  in  Sodom."  Now,  how  much 
time  elapsed  between  my  text  and  that  I  can- 
not tell  you,  but  certainly  not  very  long. 
When  he  parted  from  Abram,  he  did  not  go 
into  Sodom,  he  went  near  it,  but  in  the  very 
next  chapter  I  find  that  he  has  moved  into 
Sodom.  It  is  a  natural  sequence.  He  went 
near  Sodom  in  order  to  make  use  of  it.  He 
was  near  enough  to  reap  some  of  its  advan- 
tages, but  it  would  be  so  much  more  conve- 
nient if  he  went  in.  Now  I  find  him  living  no 
224 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

longer  in  a  tent,  but  in  a  house;  no  longer 
near  Sodom,  but  in  the  midst  of  it;  no  longer 
separated  from  Sodom,  but  mixed  up  in  its 
life. 

Move  on,  and  see  how  this  ends.  I  go  to 
the  nineteenth  chapter,  and  in  the  nineteenth 
chapter  and  the  first  verse  I  read  these  words: 
*'And  the  two  angels  came  to  Sodom  at  even; 
and  Lot  sat  in  the  gate  of  Sodom."  We 
read  that,  and  it  does  not  mean  to  us  neces- 
sarily and  immediately  what  it  ought  to  mean. 
** Sitting  in  the  gate"  is  a  peculiarly  Eastern 
phrase,  which  brings  up  a  picture  of  Eastern 
life.  It  simply  means  that  he  had  become 
the  chief  magistrate  in  the  city.  The  chief 
magistrate  of  these  Eastern  cities  sat  in  the 
gate  to  decide  questions  of  dispute  between 
the  inhabitants;  and  to  receive  visitors  as  the 
representative  of  the  city's  hospitality.  If 
you  will  let  me  translate  that  little  phrase, 
*'Lot  sat  in  the  gate  of  Sodom,"  into  the 
language  of  to-day,  into  the  phraseology  more 
familiar,  it  is  exactly  as  though  it  were  stated 
that  Lot  had  become  the  mayor  of  Sodom. 
There  had  been  great  advancement.  First  he 
pitched  his  tent  toward  Sodom,  then  he  dwelt 
in  Sodom,  and  now  he  is  the  mayor  of  Sodom. 
225 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

That  appears  as  though  he  were  getting  on 
wonderfully  well.  He  is  a  great  success.  If 
that  man  lived  to-day,  his  biography  would  be 
sold  and  given  away  to  young  men,  as  an  ex- 
ample of  how  to  get  on  in  the  world.  Oh, 
this  gospel  of  getting  on!  I  wish  I  could  get 
rid  of  it  forever.  I  can  almost  suggest  a 
title  for  the  book,  "From  the  Tent  to  the 
Mayor's  Chair;  or,  How  to  Get  on  in  Life. ' '  I 
pick  up  a  book  and  I  read,  ' '  From  Log  Cabin 
to  White  House."  I  am  not  going  to  cast 
any  shadow  on  Garfield,  but  I  do  say  that  his 
greatness  was  not  proved  by  the  fact  that  he 
left  the  log  cabin  and  reached  the  White 
House.  He  was  a  great  man  in  the  cabin. 
If  a  man  gets  on,  and  gets  into  position,  be- 
comes mayor,  president,  and  thinks  that  is 
everything,  it  is  a  lie,  and  the  sooner  those 
facing  life  get  rid  of  such  an  idea,  the  better. 

I  wonder  where  poor  Abram  is.''  He  is 
still  there  in  that  old  tent  by  the  oaks  of 
Mamre;  he  has  made  no  progress.  He  is 
still  pitching  his  tent  and  building  his  altar; 
he  is  far  behind  the  times.  It  is  Lot  who  has 
got  on. 

But  now  I  want  to  talk  to  this  man  a  little 
while.  I  want  to  ask  him  a  few  questions.  I 
226 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

want  to  put  him  into  the  witness-box,  and  I 
want  you  to  hear  his  evidence.  Lot,  you 
have  made  a  great  success  of  this.  You  have 
pitched  your  tent  toward  Sodom,  and  finding 
that  not  to  be  so  convenient  as  it  would  be  to 
be  in,  you  went  in,  and  you  must  have  got  on 
wonderfully  well  if  they  made  you  mayor,  and 
put  you  to  sit  in  the  gate.  But  I  want  to  ask 
you  four  things,  Lot:  How  has  this  move 
affected  your  own  inner  life,  your  own  mind, 
your  own  heart?  And  then  I  want  to  ask  you 
how  it  affected  your  family,  whom  you  took 
into  Sodom  with  you?  And  then  I  want  to 
know  how  your  coming  into  Sodom  affected 
Sodom?  And  then  I  want  to  ask  the  mean- 
est thing — and  I  put  it  last,  though  it  might 
have  been  asked  first — How  much  money  you 
made  out  of  it  by  the  time  you  had  done?  If 
you  want  to  get  on  in  life,  surely  these  ques- 
tions are  fair.  How  will  your  move  act  upon 
your  heart  and  conscience,  your  loved  ones, 
upon  the  city  into  which  you  went,  and  lastly, 
how  much  money  will  you  make  from  the 
transaction? 

Let  us  begin  with  the  first.     Lot,   how 
about  yourself?     You  are  mayor  of  the  city, 
how  about  your  own  heart  and  mind?     And 
327 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

coming  on  here  to  the  New  Testament  I  have 
the  answer.  Listen.  ''Lot,  distressed  by 
the  lascivious  hfe  of  the  wicked  (for  that 
righteous  man  dwelHng  among  them,  in  see- 
ing and  hearing,  vexed  his  righteous  soul  from 
day  to  day  with  their  lawless  deeds). ' '  That 
is  the  picture  of  discontent!  Surely  when  the 
man  got  on  this  way  he  must  have  been  con- 
tent. Nay,  discontented!  Surely  when  a 
man  moved  into  the  city,  and  lived  amongst 
them^,  and  became  mayor,  he  had  peace. 
Nay,  he  vexed  his  soul,  his  heart  was  hot  and 
restless.  He  had  seen  the  vision  of  the 
higher  things,  and  therefore  he  was  never 
satisfied  with  the  lower.  If  you  want  to  know 
where  rest  is,  and  peace  is,  and  quietness  is, 
and  joy  is,  it  is  with  old-fashioned  Abram  up 
there  in  the  tent,  under  the  oaks,  the  man 
who  never  chose  upon  the  desire  of  selfish- 
ness, but  always  upon  the  basis  of  the  divine 
will  and  government,  and  the  man  who  always 
lived  not  merely  seeing  the  things  perishing, 
but  the  eternal  things,  the  infinite  and  undy- 
ing things.  Lot  lost  his  peace  and  rest  when 
he  went  into  Sodom.  If  you  have  lost  your 
own  heart's  ease,  there  is  nothing  that  can 
make  up  for  it.  You  may  make  your  for- 
22S 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

tune,  you  may  make  your  position,  you  may 
make  money,  but  if  your  heart  is  hot  and  rest- 
less, you  will  make  a  disastrous  failure  of  it. 
An  old  woman  living  away  up  on  the  wild 
North  coast  of  my  country  came  to  her 
Christmas  Day,  and  had  absolutely  nothing 
for  her  Christmas  dinner  upon  her  table,  but 
a  piece  of  bread  and  a  glass  of  water.  And  a 
Christian  person  who,  thinking  of  the  old  lady 
on  that  glad  day,  went  to  her  about  mid-day, 
to  take  her  something,  found  her  already  sit- 
ting down  to  her  Christmas  dinner,  which 
consisted  of  the  bread  and  the  water.  She 
was  very  hard  of  hearing  and  did  not  notice 
the  footstep  of  the  person  who  came  into  her 
little  cottage.  But  this  person  heard  the  old 
woman  ask  her  blessing.  With  eyes  shut, 
and  hands  clasped,  and  that  sweet,  ineffable 
light  that  never  was  on  land  or  sea  on  her 
face,  the  old  woman  said,  ''O  God,  I  thank 
Thee  for  these  gifts  of  Thy  love  on  this 
Christmas  Day.  Thou  hast  given  me  all 
these  and  Christ. ' '  You  know  as  well  as  I 
do,  if  you  are  only  true  to  your  own  heart, 
that  you  would  rather  have  this  old  woman's 
heart's  ease  than  all  the  wealth  in  the  v\^orld. 
What   is  it  worth  to   a  man,   if   surrounded 

22Q 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

with  all  luxury,  and  all  wealth  at  his  command 
to  minister  to  every  desire  of  his  material 
body,  if  his  heart  is  hot  and  restless,  if  he 
vexes  himself  every  day,  and  is  filled  with  a 
great  hunger  that  cannot  be  fed.  That  was 
Lot's  condition.  It  was  a  sad  failure,  that 
move  of  Lot's. 

But  now,  Lot,  how  about  your  family.? 
When  you  turned  your  back  upon  Abram, 
upon  the  tent,  and  went  to  live  in  Sodom, 
what  about  your  children?  And  the  story  is 
one  that  cannot  be  told.  It  is  too  dreadful, 
too  appalling.  Let  it  simply  be  said  that 
when  Lot  moved  into  Sodom,  and  took  his 
children  there,  he  lost  them.  Oh,  the  tender 
infinite  grace  of  God,  as  seen  in  the  angel 
sent  to  bear  to  Lot  the  message  of  coming 
destruction.  Upon  hearing  it  Lot  went  out 
to  persuade  his  sons-in-law,  ''and  he  seemed 
unto  his  sons-in-law  as  one  that  mocked." 
They  laughed  at  him,  and  took  no  heed,  and 
presently  he  left  the  city  with  his  wife,  whose 
heart  had  become  knit  to  all  the  grossness  of 
the  city;  and  with  his  two  daughters,  who  had 
become  utterly  corrupted  in  the  city.  He 
lost  his  children,  he  lost  his  loved  ones  when 
he  took  them  into  the  city.  And  every  one 
230 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

here  that  knows  what  that  means,  knows  that 
when  Lot  pitched  his  tent  toward  Sodom,  he 
was  making  a  disastrous  mistake.  Better 
keep  in  the  tent,  better  be  old-fashioned,  bet- 
ter be  considered  out  of  date,  and  keep  hold 
of  the  children,  than  move  into  the  city  to  get 
wealth  and  satisfy  the  greed  of  a  covetous 
nature,  if  the  price  to  be  paid  is  the  price  of 
the  ruin  of  the  loved  ones. 

Yet  let  me  ask  him  another  question. 
But  Lot,  what  did  you  do  for  Sodom?  Surely 
you  had  a  good  effect  upon  the  men  in  Sodom, 
you  must  have  influenced  them.  Where  are 
they?  You  went  down  to  purify  Sodom,  to 
lift  Sodom  up,  to  lift  Sodom  toward  right- 
eousness and  God  and  truth.  You  know  the 
awful  story.  There  were  not  ten  righteous 
men  in  the  city.  The  man  that  nearly  saved 
Sodom  was  not  the  man  who  went  to  live  in 
it,  but  that  man  under  the  oaks.  He  prayed 
for  Sodom,  pleaded  with  God  for  Sodom, 
wrestled  with  God  for  Sodom,  and  he  re- 
ceived the  divine  promise  that  if  ten  right- 
eous men  should  be  found  therein,  the  city 
should  be  spared,  but  they  could  not  be 
found,  although  Lot  had  lived  there  until  he 
became  mayor.  It  was  a  disastrous  failure. 
231 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

He  lost  not  only  his  peace  and  his  children, 
but  his  influence. 

And  then  the  last  thing.  It  is  the  mean- 
est question,  but  I  choose  to  put  it  last,  and 
in  this  way.  Lot,  how  much  did  you  make? 
You  know  the  answer.  You  do  not  want  me 
to  tell  you.  If  you  want  to  know  how  much 
he  made  out  of  it,  go  some  day  when  you  are 
on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean,  to  that  brack- 
ish Dead  Sea,  whose  lifeless  waves  lap  the 
shore  with  an  unending  monotone  of  death. 
He  lost  it  all,  all  he  saved  out  of  Sodom  was 
his  life,  and  he  had  to  be  persuaded  to  save 
that,  for  at  last  angel  hands  put  upon  his 
shoulders  hastened  him  out  of  the  city.  He 
went  in  rich  and  came  out  a  pauper.  Now 
you  see  what  I  meant  when  I  said.  Here  is  a 
disastrous  failure,  a  good  man  who  wanted 
to  be  right,  who,  acting  upon  a  wrong  prin- 
ciple, took  the  wrong  pathway,  pitched  his 
tent  toward  Sodom,  came  into  Sodom,  be- 
came chief  magistrate  of  Sodom,  lost  his 
peace,  lost  his  children,  lost  his  influence, 
lost  his  very  wealth  at  last;  and  we  see  him 
hurrying  away,  even  as  he  leaves,  himself  so 
demoralised  that  he  longs  still  for  a  city,  and 
he  says,  ''Oh,  let  me  escape  to  Zoar,  it  is 
232 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

only  a  little  one."  He  went  to  Zoar,  and 
did  not  tarry  there,  but  found  his  way  to  the 
mountains,  the  caves  of  the  mountains,  and 
when  in  those  lonely  mountain  caves,  he  has 
left  behind  him  all  the  wealth  and  finds  him- 
self back  again  in  the  old  place  of  separation 
from  things  that  are  evil,  then  it  is  probable 
that  he  begins  to  find  his  peace,  and  will 
finally  regain  something  of  his  influence. 

Now,  surely  I  need  hardly  hold  you  another 
moment  to  say  anything  about  the  lessons. 
They  are  so  self-evident.  I  want  to  press 
them  home  in  the  closing  words.  The  first 
lesson,  then,  is,  that  there  is  no  folly  quite 
equal  to  the  folly  of  self-centered  seeking. 
This  is  the  place  to  declare  it.  You  will  not 
hear  that  outside;  that  message  is  not  preached 
in  the  ways  of  men  to-day.  It  must  be  in  the 
sanctuary  of  God,  in  the  house  of  prayer,  that 
this  truth  is  repeated.  Men  are  urged  out- 
side to  take  care  of  number  one,  to  look  after 
themselves.  You  can  often  tell  what  the 
world  is  thinking  by  its  proverbs,  its  maxims, 
its  little  speeches.  Take  care  of  number  one. 
That  is  a  doctrine  of  devils.  Said  a  man  in 
my  hearing,  in  one  of  the  suburban  trains  in 
London  some  little  while  ago,  travelling  to  the 

233 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

city,  speaking  of  a  man  who  had  fallen  out  of 
the  line  of  success:  "Well,"  said  the  man, 
glibly,  ''it  is  each  for  himself,  and  the  devil 
take  the  hindmost,"  and  that  is  the  gospel 
men  are  preaching  outside.  Look  out  for 
yourself,  each  for  yourself.  Here  in  the 
sanctuary  of  God,  I  say  that  that  is  not  true, 
that  in  those  cases  the  devil  generally  gets  the 
foremost,  and  it  is  the  man  who  is  self-seek- 
ing, and  who  chooses  in  life  simply  upon  the 
basis  of  his  own  selfishness,  who  is  going  to 
make  the  most  disastrous  failure. 

And  the  second  lesson  I  learn  from  this 
study  of  the  character  of  Lot  is  this.  It  is 
utterly  useless  to  try  and  make  compromises 
between  good  and  evil.  Lot  pitched  near 
Sodom,  and  did  not  at  first  go  into  Sodom. 
It  was  an  act  of  dishonesty  and  hypocrisy.  If 
your  heart  is  in  Sodom,  you  might  just  as  well 
go  in  first  as  last.  I  have  infinitely  more 
respect  for  the  man  who  goes  clean  in  than 
for  the  man  pitching  just  outside,  and  trying 
to  keep  up  a  sort  of  religiousness  while  his 
heart  is  set  upon  evil  things.  You  cannot  do 
it.  There  is  no  via  media  here.  You  must 
find  a  simple  principle  of  life,  and  act  upon 
it.     You  may  try  to   pitch  your  tent   near 

234 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

Sodom,  to  keep  up  an  appearance  of  loyalty 
to  God,  and  get  out  of  Sodom  everything 
material  and  sordid,  but  it  won't  last.  The 
man  will  soon  get  into  Sodom,  but  at  last  he 
will  be  driven  out,  a  pauper  and  a  beggar. 
There  is  no  failure  more  heart-breaking  and 
disastrous  than  success  which  leaves  God  out 
of  the  bargain. 

Oh,  my  brothers  and  sisters,  you  know  it. 
You  tell  me  to-day  about  men  amassing 
wealth,  and  you  say  of  that  man,  that  he  is  a 
far-seeing  man.  How  far  does  he  see.?  Oh, 
he  sees  a  long  way  ahead,  and  he  makes  his 
arrangements,  and  arranges  for  combines.  If 
you  think  a  man  is  far-seeing  because  he  just 
sees  round  the  globe  and  buys  all  the  ships 
up,  you  are  as  blind  as  he  is.  The  man  who 
is  far-seeing  is  the  man  who  sees  off  the  earth 
into  heaven.  If  you  are  simply  setting  out 
in  life  to  amass  mere  material  success,  fame 
created  or  position  gained,  then  success  will 
be  the  most  dismal  and  disastrous  failure. 
The  far-seeing  man  is  the  man  who  takes  up 
his  pen  and  writes,  ''If  the  earthly  house  of 
our  tabernacle  be  dissolved,  we  have  a  build- 
ing of  God,  a  house  not  made  with  hands, 
eternal,  in  the  heavens. ' '     That  is  a  f ar-see- 

235 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

ing  man,  a  man  who  has  taken  into  account 
the  spiritual  things  in  his  deaUng  with  the 
material,  the  man  who  has  taken  into  account 
eternity  as  he  is  passing  through  time,  the 
man  who  has  reckoned  with  the  immortal, 
while  tabernacling  in  mortality;  that  is  the 
far-seeing  man,  the  man  whose  choice  is 
based  upon  the  right  principle,  who  talks 
only  of  everlasting  riches,  the  spaciousness  of 
eternity.  That  is  the  far-seeing  man.  If  a 
man  shall  build  the  temple  of  success,  broad 
and  radiant  and  beautiful,  if  its  foundation  be 
earth  and  its  capstone  no  higher  than  the 
atmosphere,  he  is  a  disastrous  failure.  If  a 
man  shall  build  his  character  upon  the  basis 
of  truth,  which  shall  find  itself  in  harmony 
with  God,  then  that  man  has  made  a  success, 
though  he  never  make  a  fortune,  and  never 
make  a  name. 

Return  in  conclusion  to  this  statement. 
The  choice  is  not  wrong,  it  is  man's  preroga- 
tive to  choose,  it  is  a  proof  of  the  majesty  of 
his  being.  What  are  we  to  do.-*  Choose 
upon  a  right  principle. 

In  conclusion,  go  back  to  Abram,  the  out- 
of-date  man,  the  old-fashioned  man.  When 
Lot  made  his  choice,  did  you  notice  in  the 
236 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

thirteenth  chapter  what  happened?  When 
Lot  had  made  his  choice,  and  had  gone,  God 
said  something  to  Abram.  What  did  God  say 
to  Abram?  He  said,  ''Lift  up  now  thine 
eyes,  and  look  from  the  place  where  thou 
art."  ''Thine  eyes."  Notice  the  force  of 
it.  A  few  moments  before  Lot  had  lifted  up 
his  eyes,  "Lot  chose  him."  God  now  says 
to  Abram,  "Lift  up  thine  eyes."  Which 
way  is  Abram  to  look?  Look  to  the  north, 
look  to  the  south,  and  look  to  the  east,  look 
to  the  west.  But  that  is  every  way.  Ex- 
actly. But  a  man  cannot  look  north  and  south 
and  east  and  west  without  looking  at  what 
Lot  has  looked  at.  Exactly.  I  think  I  hear 
Abram  say,  I  have  lifted  up  mine  eyes,  and 
I  have  seen  everything  there  is  to  be  seen. 
Now  says  God,  "All  the  land  which  thou 
seest  to  thee  will  I  give  it,  and  to  thy  seed  for- 
ever. ' ' 

But  that  cannot  be  right.  Lot  has  that. 
Man  does  not  possess  anything  except  what 
God  gives  him.  Did  Abram  choose?  Oh, 
yes,  before  Lot  did.  What  did  he  choose? 
Not  to  choose  for  himself,  but  to  let  God 
choose  for  him.  That  is  the  true  principle  of 
choice.     You   remember    those   oft-repeated 

237 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

lines,  the  lines  of  Tennyson.  Remember 
these  are  not  the  words  of  the  preacher  at  his 
desk,  but  the  words  of  the  poet  in  his  sanc- 
tum, the  words  of  the  poet  looking  deeply  into 
the  very  heart  of  things,  standing  for  no  par- 
ticular morality,  the  exponent  of  no  particular 
creed,  or  dogma,  or  doctrine.  What  did  the 
great  poet  write  for  us?     He  wrote  this: 

"Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how; 
Our  wills  are  ours  to  make  them  Thine." 

That  is  the  philosophy  of  life  upon  which 
Abram  lived.  He  had  a  will.  What  did  he 
do  with  it.''  He  willed  to  do  the  will  of  God. 
Abram,  you  had  a  choice,  what  choice  did  you 
make?  I  chose  that  He  should  choose  for 
me,  my  law.  With  what  result?  Abram  got 
everything.  Lot  lost  everything.  Won't  you 
let  me  press  upon  you  these  two  principles  of 
life?  Will  you  choose  upon  a  selfish  basis, 
for  your  own  gratification,  which  is  to  com- 
promise between  good  and  evil;  or  will  you 
rather  exercise  your  kingliness  of  will  by  will- 
ing that  God's  will  should  be  supreme?  If 
you  will  do  this  latter,  what  then?  Then  you 
will  prove  the  truth  of  Christ's  words,  *' Blessed 
are  the  meek" — the  peoph  that  are  not  self- 
assertive,  the  people  that  do  not  set  up  them- 
238 


Pitching  Toward  Sodom. 

selves  as  the  standard  and  criterion  of  desire 
— ''for  they  shall  inherit  the  earth."  It  has 
always  been  so. 

Take  the  Old  Testament  narrative  and  go 
through  it.  Take  the  New  and  go  through  it. 
Take  human  history  and  pass  along  it.  You 
will  always  find  this  so.  The  people  who  let 
God  choose  get  everything,  and  the  people 
who  choose  for  themselves  lose  everything. 
I  can  well  imagine  that  there  was  a  day  when 
the  men  of  the  world  laughed  at  Noah.  I 
have  sometimes  tried  to  imagine  what  the 
newspaper  articles  would  have  been  like  if 
newspapers  had  existed  when  Noah  went  into 
that  ark.  There  would  have  appeared  in  all 
probability  a  column  headed,  ''Strange  Case 
of  Mental  Aberration."  "Noah,  our  highly 
respected  fellow-countryman,  has  at  last  cul- 
minated his  folly  by  going  into  this  peculiar 
structure  that  he  has  been  building;  and  he  is 
locked  in;  he  has  given  up  his  land  and  every- 
thing, except  his  own  immediate  relatives  and 
a  curious  but  carefully  selected  assortment  of 
living  things. ' '  But  there  came  a  day  when 
the  only  land-owner  in  the  world  was  Noah. 
There  came  the  morning  after  the  deluge  and 
desolation    and    despair    and    darkness    that 

239 


The  True  Estimate  of  Life. 

Noah  came  out  and  the  whole  earth  belonged 
to  him.  That  is  always  so.  Are  you  a  little 
in  doubt  about  it?  Don't  try  and  read  all 
your  life  story  in  the  appearances  of  these 
hours.  Go  back  to  history,  and  you  find  that 
it  is  always  so.  May  God  help  you  to  choose 
upon  the  true  principle,  and  letting  Him 
choose,  enthrone  Him  in  the  life,  make  Him 
absolute  Monarch,  handing  over  the  reins  of 
government  to  the  King,  flinging  back  the 
door  of  every  chamber  of  the  being,  letting 
Him  master  you.  Then  will  your  life  be  in 
harmony  with  His  will,  the  horizon  will  be 
set  back,  and  the  light  breaking  upon  you  will 
be  the  light  that  has  no  waning,  the  dawning 
of  the  eternal  day.  May  we  be  delivered 
from  the  folly  of  Lot,  and  be  brought  into  the 
wisdom  of  Abram. 


240 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  01101   6534 


Date  Due 

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